Locking Soulbeast to 1 pet isn't great

At least for me, pet lock has taken out even more diversity for builds. Overall I feel it was way too heavy handed to cut out 1 pet and 3 player skills from the equation.

Edited to be less wordy.

They have stated that this is Soulbeast's trade off and they're ok with it.

It was not a good trade off. And especially where there are a ton of unresolved issues.

@"Eurantien.4632" said:They have stated that this is Soulbeast's trade off and they're ok with it.

And 'They" are wrong.

@Blude.6812 said:

@"Eurantien.4632" said:They have stated that this is Soulbeast's trade off and they're ok with it.

Well they're the developers so not like we can do anything.

@Eurantien.4632 said:

@Blude.6812 said:

@Eurantien.4632 said:They have stated that this is Soulbeast's trade off and they're ok with it.

We can voice concerns and provide feedback.

Seems like a pretty fair trade-off. Picking one pet for offense and secondary bird for safety/mobility isn't really supporting that whole "build diversity" claim. Feels like it's more of a "I want to do everything instead of making meaningful choices" case.
Obviously it doesn't feel good. It's a nerf, it'll pretty much never feel good.

So now that the trade-off is in, is it reasonable to ask for Soulbeast version of the pet F2? Might as well give us full access to pet skills.

@Swagger.1459 said:It was not a good trade off. And especially where there are a ton of unresolved issues.

At least it is not as bad as the trade-off for mirage. In terms of fairness and to level the playing field, Anet should inform us when the other elites that have not received trade-offs will get them.

Soulbeast ALWAYS had a drawback BEFORE this 1 pet change. That drawback is the fact that some traits and utilities do not synergize or even work anymore. Things like Empathic Bond becoming completely usesless. Signet of Renewal transfering all condis to the Soulbeast (then killing the Soulbeast). Protect Me not giving barrier. Not being able to use Guard. And then also, the fact that when merged the enemy doesnt have to even think about the pet. Not to mention that signets don't give you bonus stats when merged (the stats on the pet don't become yours).

These "downsides" are so stupid, especially when they already existed in some form.

@Eurantien.4632 said:That drawback is the fact that some traits and utilities do not synergize or even work anymore.

When you are reminding us of this, it makes me realize Soulbeast was done on a rush. No other professions have traits and utilities that don't work on their elite specs.

@"Eurantien.4632" said:Soulbeast ALWAYS had a drawback BEFORE this 1 pet change. That drawback is the fact that some traits and utilities do not synergize or even work anymore. Things like Empathic Bond becoming completely usesless. Signet of Renewal transfering all condis to the Soulbeast (then killing the Soulbeast). Protect Me not giving barrier. Not being able to use Guard. And then also, the fact that when merged the enemy doesnt have to even think about the pet. Not to mention that signets don't give you bonus stats when merged (the stats on the pet don't become yours).

These "downsides" are so stupid, especially when they already existed in some form.

That isn't a real trade off in the sense that Anet means and also you are picturing the situation in a misleading way.Because all of this stuff still works when you are not merged with your pet. If you stay permanently fused, then yes, that stuff doesn't work. But it still works when you are not. Trade offs are supposed to be permanent downsides compared to the core class, not just temporary.

The installed trade off makes sense both gameplaywise and thematically. This should have been how the soulbeast worked from the beginning. Of course it will feel bad for a while for people, it is a nerf and nerfs always feel "bad" for the players of that class. But I think doing this was the right call.

@Krispera.5087 said:

@"Eurantien.4632" said:That drawback is the fact that some traits and utilities do not synergize or even work anymore.

They still work! You are all acting like being merged with the pet is a permanent effect you can't do anything against, this is simply not true. All these traits and skills still work while you are not merged with your pet and you are supposed to weave in and out of it anyway.

If you consider being locked out of some skills and traits for a period of time, then Necromancer has the same "problem". If you are in reapers shroud or death shroud, then you won't have access to your utility skills. Some traits also won't work anymore, obviously, since you don't have access to your weapons and utility skills anymore.

Being locked out of something temporary is not the same as something not functioning at all.

Well, it force the soul beast to "specialize" a bit. The only thing that it truly remove is 'flexibility' in game, not 'build diversity'.What prevent diversity in term of pet choice isn't soulbeast restriction to 1 pet, it's the imbalance of power between pets (smokescale always being a better choice than a moa for example).

It would have been better if you could still use both pets, but only merge with one of them.

Soulbeast isn't flexible. Base Ranger seems better now. What a waste of time and resources.

This is why pet swap needs to be reverted back to its original form, least there was alot more mobility, and build diversity based on having 2 pets instead of having to bond with 1. Plus crippling the original mechanic of pet swap makes the ranger almost unplayable to where its become a kill fest even in downstate. So if a ranger wants to do stomp on downs, thats almost impossible without a pet that can do things defensively. Plus x2 is that playing a class means your doing both offense and defense not having to pick one or the other. And giving other classes weapon swap when 1 class cant do its original mechanic its total pathetic and malarkey. So the best point is to just simply revert the last patch and start over from scratch. This isnt better, its just a trade off on metas from power to condi.

Being locked to one pet in combat serves absolutely no purpose than to appease the whining of other classes in PVP, a mode which shouldn't exist anyway. Soulbeasts were already limited by the fact that we couldn't switch pets while merged. Making us unable to change pets in combat is like what the NFL would call a ticky-tack penalty.

Same thing with Elementalists and Engineers not being able to swap weapons in combat. It's just an artificial limitation that somebody at Anet thought was a good idea but is pointless and annoying. Give them full weapon swap like they should have always had anyway.

@Jimbru.6014 said:Being locked to one pet in combat serves absolutely no purpose than to appease the whining of other classes in PVP, a mode which shouldn't exist anyway. Soulbeasts were already limited by the fact that we couldn't switch pets while merged. Making us unable to change pets in combat is like what the NFL would call a ticky-tack penalty.

Same thing with Elementalists and Engineers not being able to swap weapons in combat. It's just an artificial limitation that somebody at Anet thought was a good idea but is pointless and annoying. Give them full weapon swap like they should have always had anyway.

It serves the purpose to make soulbeast not a flat upgrade to the core ranger.Soulbeast was able to do everything a ranger could do, but more thanks to their merge mechanic.

Other classes got stuff removed from them to get access to their elite spec mechanic.Guardians replace all their virtues on both dragohunter and firebrand.Engineers give up their elite toolbelt skill (F5) to get access to the function gyro or holoforge.Necromancers give up their death shroud by either replacing it with the reapers shroud or getting the shades.

Why should some classes have to sacrifice stuff, while soulbeast gets to be a flat upgrade without having to trade something?The same rules for elite specs should apply to anyone. Elite specs are not supposed to be upgrades to core anymore, they are supposed to be side progression. You can specialise in some stuff, but then you also have to give up some other things you used to have before.

I don't really see a big deal. in pve and wvw you can switch pets out of combat.

@Kodama.6453 said:

@Jimbru.6014 said:Being locked to one pet in combat serves absolutely no purpose than to appease the whining of other classes in PVP, a mode which shouldn't exist anyway. Soulbeasts were already limited by the fact that we couldn't switch pets while merged. Making us unable to change pets in combat is like what the NFL would call a ticky-tack penalty.

Same thing with Elementalists and Engineers not being able to swap weapons in combat. It's just an artificial limitation that somebody at Anet thought was a good idea but is pointless and annoying. Give them full weapon swap like they should have always had anyway.

Soulbeast was done up to be an actual sniper style traitline, core ranger just simply doesnt have the skill or utility to make this possible. druid was mostly done as a secondary healer which has failed due to other classes that can step into that limelight for secondary healer. By crippling or putting limits on soulbeast via pet swap your limiting its ability to be an actual sniper class to counter condi classes that have such heavy condi bomb potential.

@vanflyheight.6832 said:

@Kodama.6453 said:

@"Jimbru.6014" said:Being locked to one pet in combat serves absolutely no purpose than to appease the whining of other classes in PVP, a mode which shouldn't exist anyway. Soulbeasts were already limited by the fact that we couldn't switch pets while merged. Making us unable to change pets in combat is like what the NFL would call a ticky-tack penalty.

Same thing with Elementalists and Engineers not being able to swap weapons in combat. It's just an artificial limitation that somebody at Anet thought was a good idea but is pointless and annoying. Give them full weapon swap like they should have always had anyway.

How did you come up with the idea that soulbeast is supposed to be a sniper style traitline?I can't find anything in that traitline that reads "sniper" for me, actually quite the opposite.

Soulbeast provides you some benefit for getting close and personal. Beast mode attacks that pull enemies towards you or let you jump into them dealing huge damage, getting access to a melee weapon with mainhand dagger, providing an array of survival tools to last longer while you deal damage in close combat like lifesteal, taking less damage from conditions while you have protection, reviving you if your health drops to 0 in beastmode, etc.

Saying that soulbeast is a sniper traitline is like saying that holosmith is supposed to be a sniper traitline. They are not, they are melee dps trait lines, you get to deal alot of damage through the spec while it also gives you tools to not immediately die doing so (notice how holosmith also has alot of survival built in for this task, while still being a melee dps spec).

Well, the moment I realized I can't swap pets anymore in combat when traited as soulbeast, I instantly went back to core ranger. No more soulbest for me untill this is reverted.

@"Sobx.1758" said:Seems like a pretty fair trade-off. Picking one pet for offense and secondary bird for safety/mobility isn't really supporting that whole "build diversity" claim. Feels like it's more of a "I want to do everything instead of making meaningful choices" case.

Obviously it doesn't feel good. It's a nerf, it'll pretty much never feel good.

This had actually been talked about before. That meaningful choice basically just goes down to choosing 1 pet instead of 2 for combat. That really doesnt mean it needs more thinking. Quite contrary, those players that didnt feel like experimenting didnt really swapped pets that much. I agree that it doesnt much affect build diversity, since these are just specialization skills on the table with this change. And yes, other elite specs unable to swap weps is even more of a pain.Its kinda sad though that ballance team havent heard out that part of feedback that was about enjoyment in pve with these changes. It really feels like it just panders to competitive modes. Whats been now happening is that many ranger players are not "trying out more" core ranger. They just feel like not playing Soulbeast at all. Ive still actually got nice builds with SB, but it doesnt mean its more fun. Still yes it could be worse...now some are even talking about broken core ranger, its just another hate wave.

@Bealis.6023 said:

@"Sobx.1758" said:Seems like a pretty fair trade-off. Picking one pet for offense and secondary bird for safety/mobility isn't really supporting that whole "build diversity" claim. Feels like it's more of a "I want to do everything instead of making meaningful choices" case.

Obviously it doesn't feel good. It's a nerf, it'll pretty much never feel good.

No, it's not "the meaningful choice goes down" because you pretend there was such a great diversity in pet use. There were few of the same "pet sets" used all the time to ensure the best of all worlds. "it being talked about" doesn't make it correct and it's clearly not.

Sure, there might have been "those 3 people" that just played around with all pets "for kitten and giggles", but stop pretending second pet enabled meaningful choices -it didn't. It made it so you didn't really need to make one.