Siamoth vs Smokescale

So i noticed that in pvp now there is new soulbeast build that is getting more recognition which is the sword axe/axe warhorn. I’ve tried those build and i think it’s amazing and provide alternative than the usual pew pew soulbeast..

My question will be, in those build, it reccomends to use siamoth and owl, i understand th use of owl which the mobility and healing, but i dont understand why choosing siamoth over smokescale. I think smokescale provide so many good things and it’ s hard to not pick it.

Anyone can explain me the reason?

Ps: the build was used by boyce in latest MAT, and it has several variants of it

To make it short: Use siamoth when u play with nature magic and the boon merge trait (or alternatively we heal as one with beastmastery traitline, which I wouldn't recommend tbh but u would get the boonshare). Otherwise I recommend playing smokescale (when using beastmastery) cuz without the boonshare and boonmerge, I don't see the point in taking siamoth. When played with nm ws and soulbeast u can use either siamoth or smokescale (altho siamoth is a little bit better if u get plasma rng).One little thing... Use the unblockable trait in sb when playing with bm traitline and without we heal as oneHopefully it is clear now :)

hi thanks for answering, I think understand what you mean. I'm more inclined to use smokescale also because the merge abilities F2-F1-F3 can land a nice combo, and also the special skill smoke cloud is a life saver in certain situation, while siamoth merge abilities seems ordinary to me, the F3 "unflinching fortitude" is nice but the other skill is kinda meh (maybe I'm just not good in using it), and yes the "forage" is RNG and kinda funny when need to pick the weapon first before using it.

so another noob question what is the main function/role of siamoth? the damage is not great the utility is also not that awesome. still wondering on the role of this pet.

@lightningz.1465 said:what is the main function/role of siamoth? the damage is not great the utility is also not that awesome. still wondering on the role of this pet.I think Treesixty explained the function/role pretty well. Maybe you're looking for something else?Ahh, I think you trivialized the F2 ability of the siamoth.That random F2 is the entire point, because the pig family of pets have limited Forage selections. They are all different.Siamoth gets 2 stealth items and Plasma.the other three cover hard CC (boar), condi skills (warthog), and healing (pig).

@"PaRaPhReNiA.8763" said:To make it short: Use siamoth when u play with nature magic (boonshare) and the boon merge trait .without the boonshare and boonmerge, I don't see the point in taking siamoth.When played with nm ws and soulbeast siamoth is a little bit better if u get plasma rng.

Siamoth abilities under merge are not as great but workable. The whole point is to get your RNG Plasma, use it to gain all boons, which is then automatically shared to your pet by Nature Magic minor trait. When your boons from Plasma are about to run out, merge with your pet to benefit from the Soulbeast boon merge trait to get all the boons again.

Boonshare in GW2 is curious because it doesn't copy over the boon durations from the pet, the boonshare trait or skill itself checks what boons were copied, then provides a set duration or stack for the skill as indicated in the boonshare trait or skill. So even if your pet has 10 seconds of Fury, if the boonshare skill (e.g. "We Heal as One!") only states 3 seconds, 3 seconds of Fury is all that is getting copied over. On the other hand you can maximize your + your pet's boon uptime by only using boonshare skills right as they run out.

When you only get the stealth items you don't get too much value but it's still useful. Getting your RNG Plasma can make some fights comically easy because of extended-duration protection, resistance, stability, quickness, retaliation etc., although this does mean you might have to fish for items before you engage.

If you do it right (RNG on your side), you can annoy more people than just Mesmers when they fight Thieves because you can now annoy everybody with all boons for all time (when you're lucky).

Aaah i see, i see you explain it clearly and it all make sense now, so the entire point of siamoth is the plasma and maintain the boon through nature magic and merging with pet, i think i will try it and getting used to it.

Thank you so much for the explanation, i think this build need to be spread to all ranger main as it is quite powerful, i don’t know who make this build first so i’m a bit reluctant to share it because i don’t know whether the guy who invented it want to share it

As others have stated, the main reason for Siamoth is the plasma highroll, but the 3 Target 3s Knockdown it has ain’t bad either.