Soulbeast is great in WvW and PvP.

[lightningz.1465]

My problem with soulbeast is you tied with sic'em to be at least effective (power soulbeast), and if you take sicem means you are lacking on survival skill (condi clear, invul,resistance), and yes power soulbeast attack is predictable, if you miss the burst then you'll die easily when get focused.

 

I never tried condi soulbeast, and i dont know whether it's effective or not, but i think there are more effective class out there if you want to focus on condi (scrooge, mirage). So soulbeast is still nah for me in pvp, druid is still better for competitive mode, although i agree it's boring to play.

[starbreath.8597]

Shadelang just made lb rank 13 in spvp. He streams exclusively playing soulbeast.

So I would say soulbeast is extremely viable. Just that the skill ceiling is really high and you need to control your pets very well.

Sure he might have an easier time facerolling with Druid , but have half the fun.

Do search for his stream shadelang_ .

( I can't find a google link to his profile since he switched to shadelang_.

If someone could help put out a link)

[Shadelang.3012]

Hey there. Im not sure what you mean by my profile. But I should be reachable just through

 

And as far as soulbeast goes. Ill agree I think its viable. But druid is much easier to play and more user friendly. Soulbeast is better for me because it augments a playstyle rather than replacing it like druid does. To me druid was too much of a step away form how I naturally play to enjoy it. Soulbeast can be competitive. But it does not fill the roll taht a druid does without specializing heavily towards it at the cost of alot else. In other words, for me soulbeast fills a completely seperate roll in conquest. And thats something that needs to be remembered going into a match. Both for hte soulbeast and the rest of his team. it is not a druid and should not play/be expected to play the same way as one. Druids are the gods of 1v1s on far nodes. Soulbeast is a much more effective +1er and more immediate quick access group support. In team fights where a druid is in danger of being ignored depending on the enemy team comp a soulbeast can still be a solid threat.

 

The biggest fault I have with druid isnt with its mechanics. Though there are some things that are still....wonky....sometimes. Its largely the perception of ranger as a whole. When you go into a match people expect you to be druid. And to fulfill the druid roll. Often even leaving you to 1v1 an enemy druid. Which is a losing 1v1 against a skilled druid that knows how to mitigate your highly telegraphed high damage attacks while chipping you down. Ive even had druids on my team swap to other classes assuming that im going to fulfill the roll they are leaving open.

 

This has cost me more games than the actual performance of soulbeast. I have started stating at the beginning of most of my fights now that I am not infact a druid. And matches seem to go better when I do that. Druid is better at what is currently expected of ranger. And in a meta team comp it will likely still take priority. But for ranked que soulbeast is very viable. It does involve more risk. But in many ways the payout of a well played soulbeast is higher than that of a druid. So long as druids are allowed to be druids and soulbeasts soulbeasts.

[jcbroe.4329]

> @starbreath.8597 said:

> Shadelang just made lb rank 13 in spvp. He streams exclusively playing soulbeast.

> So I would say soulbeast is extremely viable. Just that the skill ceiling is really high and you need to control your pets very well.

> Sure he might have an easier time facerolling with Druid , but have half the fun.

> Do search for his stream shadelang_ .

>

> ( I can't find a google link to his profile since he switched to shadelang_.

> If someone could help put out a link)

 

I'm not disagreeing with you, but I'm going to have to disagree with your logic.

 

You're talking about incredibly skilled players, that could play literally any build and be successful. Stawk, Shadelang, Shadowpass, Frosty on EU, while their perception and gameplay are valuable; thinking that because these guys are successful with a build, anybody can jump into a match with it and be successful is going to be a hard smack in the face to those people when they get annihilated because they don't realize there's a HUGE skillgap. Shoot, Eurantien basically never ran what was "meta" during queues, he did a full core ranger climb to legendary during HoT, and was still performing at a tier where people were calling him one of the best rangers in the game.

 

Heck, Zan is playing weaponless Holosmith on stream, that doesn't make that a viable build. That just makes these guys good players.

 

Note that I'm not disagreeing with you though, I just wanted to make it clear that just because these guys are capable of doing something, it doesn't automatically make it viable for everyone else.

[lightningz.1465]

Yeah agree on shadelang can make the soulbeast works because of his skill, not entirely because it's better in team composition than druid, and yes soulbeast requires much much higher skill AND much lower ping, if your ping is above 200 or 300 like me, forget it.