Soulbeast 2.0 - The better Soulbeast?

[Cyno.4897]

You love roaming the world, exploring and do events? You want to do content only because you love to play Ranger?

 

Well, me too! Soulbeast is a great step for the class. Roaming the wilds, being agile and flexible, being one with the pet is awesome!

 

But let’s talk about how we make the elite specalization even more fun and appealing for all game modes. It performs decently in WvW and PvP scenarios, which is fantastic!

However, in open world, fractals, raids and dungeons I feel like something is missing. And I don't mean the damage.

 

ArenaNet doesn't need to reinvent the wheel to fix this, let's take a look at what we have and what they can realisticly do.

 

**BEASTMODE**:

Suggestion: pet-swap in [beastmode].

 

This was suggested multiple times in the forum already. Make pet-swap possible in [beastmode] with the same cooldown for pet-swap as usual.

If this is technically too difficult just reduce the cooldown of [beastmode].

There are many ways to fix this. Right now it doesn't feel smooth or easy to use.

 

Also, do you like the shroud effect? Please comment down below!

 

**PETSKILLS**:

"The bond between a Soulbeast and their pet is so strong that they can become one in spirit"

Right now we are very limited with our choice of [beast] skill. Condi builds are stuck with [Primal cry], Power builds will choose [Worldly Impact]. These are good skills but we mainly get them because we want the attribute bonus.

Suggestion: Every pet FAMILY gets one of the skills. Bears and Porcine would get [Worldly Impact], smashing the ground with our combined weight and might! As Felines and Canine we bleed foes with our frightening [Primal Cry]! In Wyvern and Drake form we pull our foes with [Prelude Lash]!

 

Overall I think there is too much focus on dmg for the F1 and F2 skills. We can do damage with our autohits and skills. What would be cooler? Combo fields for some skill interaction! Fast break bar damage and non-damaging conditions! We got some pets with that but most of them just feel slow and not worth using.

 

What about **DAGGER**?

Choosing dagger means getting up close and also receiving more damage because of that. Playing with your foes. Poison and bleed them out. It's a risky playstyle that should feel rewarding.

 

It IS risky. It IS damage-y. It IS fun. And it's still a bit clunky.

 

Skill 2 [Double Arc]

Offers nice condi damage. Right now the poison doesn't trigger when you are in Beastmode.

We need this. Anti-healing poison and life leech from [Predator's Cunning] trait!

This would separate it from axe 2 [splitblade]. Right now axe 2 just does the same, inflict bleeding, at safer range even.

Let us have that poison for melee. It's a Soulbeast weapon, let us enjoy the full of it while we are in Beastmode! Reward us for going in!

"...attacking with fanglike dagger strikes..." It looks very similar to the auto-attack and shares the same animation of the Feline 2 [Maul]. Name but one animal that uses fangs sideways... I guess there is little hope for a different animation in the future, but it would be a nice touch.

 

Skill 3 [instinctive Engage]

Awesome leap! The quickness is sweet for solo content. Love that they gave us a gap closer.

Still feels a bit slow though. I mean you get quickness AFTER that, so you get it for the 2nd hit with the ammo mechanic. Which you will automatically do when you mash buttons multiple times like me.

Suggestion: remove ammo mechanic, give it a bit more attack speed. 1/2 sec instead of 3/4 sec should do it.

We got a longer cd now? No problem! Add fury for a few sec to make up for it. We have the [Furious Strength] trait for fury damage, give us something to work with here.

Don't want to remove ammo mechanic? Maybe give it 1/2 sec evade then. Still make it faster please. Right now we are stuck in a cool but long and too risky casting animation.

 

**OFFHAND DAGGER**

Since we are talking daggers, a second look at offhand dagger would be cool.

 

Skill 4 [stalker's Strike]

Why not shift the ammo mechanic to over here? A double iframe if you are in a tough spot would provide that agile gameplay that melee Ranger desperately needs.

 

Skill 5 [Crippling Talon]

It really feels counterintuitive to put a single target slow on a melee weapon. You want to escape out of a tough spot? That slow won't help, use an iframe. Facing a group of enemies? No need for a single target slow here. Chasing an enemy? Rather use your bow then.

Make it a bouncing projectile to hit 3 or 5 targets with reduced damage on hit, that way it can be a nice aoe slow.

Or make it a purely damage-focused skill with some extra poison damage.

 

**STANCES**

Your guess is better than mine here. [Dolyak Stance] is fine, the other feels lacking in terms of both cooldown and utility.

 

Do you want to see some of these suggestions in the game? Thumbs up if you like some of them and let the devs know!

What do you want to do to make Soulbeast feel better? Besides bugfix

 

[osiris.4876]

You're making some good points, but I am not sure whether even these changes could save this elite spec.

[Billy.1879]

I think due to the power that they bring rangers would be beyond OP if we could pet swap so easily.

 

I'd love to see someone try to kill me swapping from a tank moa to a jacaranda (is there even a tank moa?)

[ProtoMarcus.7649]

* Double Arc **DOES** apply the poison when in beastmode. The player's next attacks apply the poison.

* Crippling Talon would be the skill needing ammo

* Adding a bounce to it would make it too similar to thief's 5th dagger skill. The dagger for ranger is meant to be a focused target weapon - that's why its main-hand counterpart is limited to 2 targets (instead of 3 for thieves)

* Stalker's strike is fine in terms of cooldown and evade - it's meant for utility, though wouldn't be opposed to some tweaks in the direct damage and the condition durations.

 

 

@"Billy.1879" - Blue Moa is the Stoic Moa Family Pet - the moa family currently (and oddly) lacks a **Supportive** archetype which would GREATLY benefit from the 25% healing efficiency, as Harmonic Cry is an AoE heal.

[Cyno.4897]

Imo Arenanet should balance pet skills with a fast petswap in mind anyways. Correct me if I am wrong here, but I think what most players were expecting was a versatile build that can be switched in combat, depending on the situation. If they make petswap in Beastmode possible and leave petswap cd untouched it would just remove the clunkyness and give us more options. Switching in and out of beastmode is not exactly what we have right now. Camp Beastmode or unmerge for an unbuffed pet more like.

 

@ ProtoMarcus.7649

Really like your idea with the ammo mechanic on [Crippling Talon]. I feel like they could do it anywhere but dagger 3 right now. I get what they were going for, switching to close range from bow and then engaging with a leap. But then we waste our quickdraw for a moment of quickness. What do you think about mainhand dagger?