[Video] Pewpewing in Zergs, The GLORY of the Soulbeast

So this is a showcase of the potential of the Soulbeast in WvW and why it needs that little push that could be to share 100% of the duration of the stances in WvW. My positioning is not great i end up in some funny spots a couple of times, but this is just a point showing the Soulbeast could be a great class for WvW.

In this case this Zerg is partially a Guild , around 15-20 guild members + pubs. Discord with a good commander + in this case i was lucky to get a good support (FB) in the party so i did not feel i needed to keep my utilities for myself. All parties have FBs, we have scrappers and tempest.

Just zerg against zerg combat, this video showcases how Soulbeast could have a legitimate place as off-support in WvW squadrons if they could share 100% of the stance duration. No need to extend the radius of the stances as ideally Soulbeast should be in melee weaponry as the reflects and projectile hate are permanent.

That would not buff 1vX Soulbeast in either case as it would just benefit the allies around him. Let's ask for that change, for a better soulbeast (and less selfish).

1- There are far better team choices in wvw than any Ranger build.

2- We all know that teams carry certain specs, as evidence of the video.

3- For the manyith time, DRUID is supposed to be the support spec. Please stop trying to change Soulbeast into a support spec. Especially since it’s main design function was supposed to be a condition melee spec, but that design is still gosh awful outside of fighting scripted things in pve land.

And please become more familiar with what Druid was designed for...

“Bringing heavy healing to GW2, unlike anything you have seen before. Strong support, very powerful in upcoming raids and WvW. Can sustain a zerg train of 20-30 players in WvW.”

yeah i always found it weird how they limited stance share duration with allies and instead went with increasing it on yourself. i mean, its supposed to be a team support option, why would you limit what the trait is supposed to be? then ofc they nerfed stances cuz they were too powerful. coulda just fixed this trait and the prot gives -33% condi dmg trait. godamit.

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:yeah i always found it weird how they limited stance share duration with allies and instead went with increasing it on yourself. i mean, its supposed to be a team support option, why would you limit what the trait is supposed to be? then ofc they nerfed stances cuz they were too powerful. coulda just fixed this trait and the prot gives -33% condi dmg trait. godamit.

Because the main function of Soulbeast isn’t to be a strong team support.

I feel like complaining about the support of soulbeast is out of place. The ability to share stances was something that was built as part of the initial specialization design, and whilst elite specializations are suppose to trend towards a particular subject, absolutely none of them fulfill solely role and only that role, there are trait choices for a reason.

Bringing in the healing of the druid is also irrelevant. The OP wasn't trying to turn soulbeast into a support. He was making the argument that, in a game mode where compressing the party is a valuable thing, making stances last a little longer gives motivation to taking a soulbeast over something like scourge (who deals damage and corrupts) or Herald (who deals damage and gives boons).

All that aside, I don't think lengthening stances will achieve the OP's goals. The issue is more that the stances small-ish range makes them less consistent for party support in the heat of the moment, combined with their tendency to fall off the stack when doing things like barraging, or cleaving downs. The real enemy is simply that the best weapon sets a ranger offers a zerg are both melee, and melee is still in an un-ideal spot. You can certainly make a longbow/X work, and I'm fond of it for taking objectives because of some of the unique utility things like barrage bring in dealing with siege-huggers. But, in a general sense it isn't as consistent as some of its counterparts weapon wise which is what really matters for a class you are bringing for 'damage + something'.

anduriell u just spam your opinion about this in a ton a threads. there is like 5 ppl who generally agree with you, but barely anyone sees ranger specs as seriously staple or even considerably useful in organized groups.

soulbeast compared to herald is just a loss on all options. even with all the nerfs, soulbeast only can clean up. every warrior spec does that similar or even better. ele does it better, any other rev does it better (even renegade with condi for example, since dead cannot cleanse), even a M&M necro does it better and has the benefits of still beeing a necro, any addition guardian etc etc

overall yeah, a doublestaff druid maybe can add a tiny bit healing, but it is absurdly far from even getting on a scrapper's level (whose main use is cleansing anyways)

@Stand The Wall.6987 i just don't understand why people are that bitter on making something subpar work, instead playing one of the eight-nine other options.blob-fit classes are: reaper, scrouge, dpsguard, firebrand, scrapperheal and damage, support warrior, herald.

unusual choices that can still help out are dps warrior specs, alac revs, often seen also all ele specs.

and after that, basically the leftovers, are Ranger and Thieves. also that, because u rarely to never see them speced towards even trying to be useful in groups. ele's are just by playing them well due to their standardish versatility.

@Swagger.1459 said:

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:yeah i always found it weird how they limited stance share duration with allies and instead went with increasing it on yourself. i mean, its supposed to be a team support option, why would you limit what the trait is supposed to be? then ofc they nerfed stances cuz they were too powerful. coulda just fixed this trait and the prot gives -33% condi dmg trait. godamit.

the main function of the trait is team support

@kamikharzeeh.8016 said:but barely anyone sees ranger specs as seriously staple or even considerably useful in organized groups.

and the solution is.... give up and ignore aka anets motto.

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:

@Swagger.1459 said:

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:yeah i always found it weird how they limited stance share duration with allies and instead went with increasing it on yourself. i mean, its supposed to be a team support option, why would you limit what the trait is supposed to be? then ofc they nerfed stances cuz they were too powerful. coulda just fixed this trait and the prot gives -33% condi dmg trait. godamit.

Doesn't matter. The main function of a Soulbeast isn't to be a strong team support.

@anduriell.6280

Just stating facts.

You want SB to be a super support spec. That's what Druid's design function was/is. SB was released with a dagger and leaned more toward a condi melee spec with pet absorption for extra flare, extra function, and because players asked for such a merging with pets design to tackle the pet issues that were never addressed.

Oh, I have provided a lot of feedback for Ranger, Druid and SB... Ty for asking about it!

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:

@kamikharzeeh.8016 said:but barely anyone sees ranger specs as seriously staple or even considerably useful in organized groups.

Well i don't see what is up for them if the soulbeast get this buff to support allies. It is not like the class gets any personal buff or anything it just become a bit better for squadrons.

All this hate seems like they want the class to be put down at every chance it gets to shine.

@"Swagger.1459" said:Just stating facts.You are not, you are providing biased opinions as "facts".Oh, I have provided a lot of feedback for Ranger, Druid and SB... Ty for asking about it!Well not good enough if you feel like you need to bash others to get your point across.

@anduriell.6280 Is what Irenio said a “biased opinion” too?

@"Swagger.1459" said:And please become more familiar with what Druid was designed for...

“Bringing heavy healing to GW2, unlike anything you have seen before. Strong support, very powerful in upcoming raids and WvW. Can sustain a zerg train of 20-30 players in WvW.”

Should we also change deadeye rifle skills to 1200/1500 range 5 target AoEs and utility skills for super team support?

@Swagger.1459 said:

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:

the main function of the trait is team support

changing this one trait isn't going to change the fact that overall soulbeast isn't a team support. viability over aethetics anyway. also, you make tons of threads about how to improve classes, then someone asks for a relatively minor change and you're against it. seems hypocritical to me.

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:

@Swagger.1459 said:

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:

the main function of the trait is team support

Do you understand the intended design differences between a Druid and Soulbeast? If so, what are they?

@"anduriell.6280"

"I would like to see where Anet has stated "it’s main design function was supposed to be a condition melee spec"."

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Soulbeast

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dagger_Proficiency_(soulbeast) "You can wield a dagger in your main hand."

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Predator%27s_Cunning "When you apply poison to a foe, steal some health from them."

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Twice_as_Vicious "Disabling a foe increases your damage and condition damage for a short duration."

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Oppressive_Superiority "Deal increased damage to foes at a lower health percentage than you. Conditions you apply to foes at a lower health percentage than you last longer."

Under related trait... https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ambidexterity "Gain condition damage. Gain additional condition damage while wielding a torch or dagger. Torch and dagger skills recharge faster."

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Groundwork_Gouge

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Leading_Swipe

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Serpent_Stab

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Deadly_Delivery

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Double_Arc

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Instinctive_Engage

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Rune_of_the_Soulbeast

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Soulbeast_Pads

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Soulbeast%27s_Dagger

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fang_of_Mok%C3%A8l%C3%A9

And the support skills are there to help prevent it from getting squashed in seconds in melee, and add a lil extra to teams so they aren't completely useless.

...You don't want to fix SB, you want to make a super support/lb pew pew for wvw. No thanks.

@Swagger.1459 said:

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:

@Swagger.1459 said:

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:

the main function of the trait is team support

do you understand that a class can have both support and selfish aspects to them? do you know anets intent? do you want soulbeast to be continually dismissed as a bad pick for a wvw squad? do you understand how arrogant you sound when you assume you know things that are impossible to know?

@Stand The Wall.6987 Are you saying it’s impossible to know what the devs put in the game in 2015 and 2017?

Lot of stuff that could be done better to increase your effectiveness with slb in a zerg. You're not using prelude lash, muddy terrain, or entangle for instance. And you'd definitely get more out of running double longbow with quickdraw to spam barrage, gs is clunky af in zergs

Melee soulbeast is superior to this in every way. 3/10 video

guys the meta was not made by people who specifically hate on ranger and thief. just... by people who play Wvw largescale for a crazy amount of years and hours.(i listed S-Tier, A/B-tier and C-tier basically in my last post. that's where it likely won't get out. )

the best sets are pretty objectively know therefore, and it's consensual across all servers that i know (amongst the largescale guilds) that you just don't have space for rangers in squads. surely, if we have no other person to fill the slot, you can take a ranger in a 49 ppl group. it may get kicked if a metabuild likes to join tho.

that to be said, the amount of blobs is not very high. often its a zerg + a cloud or a openzerg + a cloud, or even just a cloudy zerg (which is the weakest form by far)

also, the reason why it was more legit in older Wvw versions is pretty simple. not that many classes had bubbles to reflect or absorb shots. less dedicated healers and less good healers existed. it just loses against scrapper, FB , tempest on all points. also the aoe-dps options been lower initially. soulbeast release came at the point where the pew pew got a big drop of usefulness yet.

condirange arrowcart roleplay is its best Wvw set probably, and mainly of use for defending objectives. since no other class can outrange it, and none can fire aoe that far from most positions. ranger people will still play rallybot for enemy zergs, this is just the rational argumentation against bringing it.

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@"Swagger.1459" said:And please become more familiar with what Druid was designed for...

“Bringing heavy healing to GW2, unlike anything you have seen before. Strong support, very powerful in upcoming raids and WvW. Can sustain a zerg train of 20-30 players in WvW.”Well i'm not saying Druid can't be a support, i'm just pointing out extend the stances duration would be good for the ranger and for the game mode as we get more variety.Soulbeast also have the supportive archetype with the F3 skill which heals and provide resistance, + increased outgoing healing. So the support option is there.

Look my point still stands: Soulbeast need just one number change in one trait to have a legitimate spot in squadrons. It seems a fairly easy fix which would make happy all those ranger players who play in a gamemode which hasn't been kind to them in 8 years.

This buff does not change the soulbeast 1vX capabilities at all and this would eventually better the good will from the squad members towards rangers. And still Druid can be the pure support some people want it to be.

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OF COURSE it is aurora glade and their mindset of playing rangers in zergs..everyclass is good when you can run over enemy , hey i yolo with flamethrower engi sometimes...btw youre fighting the literall trashcan of EU servers , barruch bay , ofc u get resultsgo gvg LAYS with longbow rangers , see how far that takes you XD