Please make pets swappable in soulbeast form

Not an original proposition I know but really it's the only thing holding SB back from becoming generally accepted in WVW zergs.

Pets in zergs are wildly ineffective and are usually a straight-up liability in that they absorb boons/heals and buff enemy skills whose benefits are based on #targets hit.

Not to mention the whole reason I like SB in the first place is that the nature theme is there but I don't have to deal with the ineptitude/frustration of the pet.

Not being able to swap pets in beastmode invalidates all the "on-pet-swap" traits.

Please make it possible to swap while beastmode, and please fix the loss of beastmode on entering the water and putting beastmode on CD. It's super annoying.

/Signed Would chimm in with more but ^ he covered it all well.

Please don't.

No. (Please)

Nah. IMO there should be more merging/unmerging gameplay with soulbeast, not less.

IMO it could be implemented but should be traitable, like a replacement for eternal bond.Or a trait that refreshes the CD after petswap.

I like the swapping in and out of beastmode aspect of gameplay, it makes way more sense to me than just swapping to another pet while you are still merged with the first pet.

It would be cool if the made the pet-swapping change to weapon-swapping while in beast mode though...

@Undertow.2389 said:Nah. IMO there should be more merging/unmerging gameplay with soulbeast, not less.

Having pet out is a huge liability in larger group wvw.

Maybe if bird/spider pets could attack targets on keep walls then there'd be a reason, but for some ridiculous reason that's not possible so an unmerged pet really is not useful for that game mode.

It's nice that you like unmerging but in the game mode i like, it's really not viable or desirable.

I don't mind if it a trait, just make it possible.

i really enjoy the idea of this being traitable

I just want to say it seems a simple change and I can't understand why i am forbid to enjoy the game play of the soulbeast.

All the cds are already there the only missing thing is just the button in the IU.

i think a fair balance would be to add 3 seconds to the swap timer if you swap beasts merged as well

@Maven.1690 said:i think a fair balance would be to add 3 seconds to the swap timer if you swap beasts merged as well

there is no need for that, if you swap pets while merged you get the standard 20 seconds CD. That is what happens now, if you swap a dead pet before merging you still get the 45s CD even if the pet is automatically revived when you unmerge.

So every skill when merged has their own CD, plus the CD from pet swap i think that's enough to balance the soulbeast.

• The good thing about swap while merging is the traits which trigger when the pet swap, right now those are nullified.
• plus having access to the pet skills with their own CDs, as such you may have access to the healing skill when needed instead having to forecast the next 10 seconds of combat.

I don't think pet swap is what holds Soul Beast back in WvW zergs.

The CD going in and out of the water isn't great though.

Yeah I think there are other small refinements to make, the other main ones are to make axe #5 moveable, albeit only slowly, and make axe #2 attack in a regular cone shape when you don't have a target

If they did this, I would definitely dust my Soulbeast off again. Merging and unmerging, along with dual timers, is so clunky and unappealing for me. Ruins the idea of what (I think) the Soulbeast is. Im all for this change, but im also in agreeance that it should come at a cost of having to be traited as well. Or maybe a longer swap cooldown.

As a main Soulbeast, I can definitely say I'd enjoy being able to swap while bonded. That said, immediately having access to those new beastmode skills would be something requiring quite a bit of balancing/cost, especially in PvP. I could see a trait to allow it, but we're talking some grandmaster level stuff here.

I hate to be pessimistic but I do not think this solves the problem of ranger for zergs fighting, it remains a class focused on a single target without large aoe dmg, we do not have unique abilities like Winds of Disenchantment, Rapid fire is not as effective as Coalescence of Ruin, the only useful skill that comes to mind is dolyak stance, but other than that having pet swaps in beast mode would make sb incredibly powerful in other scenarios. I hope that ranger gets a reworking of pets and a spec that allows him to hit more than 2 targets.

Please add this feature.

Wouldn't Barrage and new traits that buff Barrage be a better place to help rangers in zergs be a much better place to start than swapping pets of all things?For starters, the CD on that skill seems unnecessarily long for something that does so little damage.I'd much rather see traits in Skirmishing or Marksmanship buffing Barrage to increase build diversity and applicability to druids and core as well, rather than another buff to Soulbeast that it doesn't really need.

What if, when you pet swapped, it instantly recharged beastmode? That seems like the best of both worlds, in my opinion.

@Revolution.5409 said:I hate to be pessimistic but I do not think this solves the problem of ranger for zergs fighting, it remains a class focused on a single target without large aoe dmg, we do not have unique abilities like Winds of Disenchantment, Rapid fire is not as effective as Coalescence of Ruin, the only useful skill that comes to mind is dolyak stance, but other than that having pet swaps in beast mode would make sb incredibly powerful in other scenarios. I hope that ranger gets a reworking of pets and a spec that allows him to hit more than 2 targets.No it does not fix the issue of the zergs hate toward the ranger.It does fix the clunkiness of the class thou.Zerg would require something like full duration of shared stances when Leader of the pack is used.

@anduriell.6280 said:

there is no need for that, if you swap pets while merged you get the standard 20 seconds CD. That is what happens now, if you swap a dead pet before merging you still get the 45s CD even if the pet is automatically revived when you unmerge.

So every skill when merged has their own CD, plus the CD from pet swap i think that's enough to balance the soulbeast.

• The good thing about swap while merging is the traits which trigger when the pet swap, right now those are nullified.

If they implement this, which I'm not sure they should, I definitely agree that pet swap in and out of beast mode should share a CD. However, if that happens, pet swap traits should also function in and out of beast mode. Poison master, spirited arrival and zephyr's speed aren't a problem with a beast mode pet swap. Clarion bond might be because SB already has enough unblockable attacks.

One more thing they would have to add to beast mode pet swap is a cast time. If the swap was instant cast like pet swapping, I think it'd be OP because it would have no tell and your enemy couldn't easily tell what you are now merged with. I also think they need to change the color of the green swirl around a merged SB to better reflect what type of pet they are attuned to.

@DuckDuckBOOM.4097 said:One more thing they would have to add to beast mode pet swap is a cast time. If the swap was instant cast like pet swapping, I think it'd be OP because it would have no tell and your enemy couldn't easily tell what you are now merged with. I also think they need to change the color of the green swirl around a merged SB to better reflect what type of pet they are attuned to.No they do not need this.As i said before: Soulbeast just need the button in the UI. As simple as that.

Pet swap already share the normal swap cooldown: 20 seconds when alive, 60 when dead.Pet's merged skills already share the cooldown.

So only thing needed here is the UI button. As simple as that.

We already have the mechanic when we dismount that we get back to merged state. So the code is already there, whenever we swap pets the Soulbeast only need to do a quick out and in animation. So it's a visual queue and other players can see easily the Soulbeast change pet.

Traits which trigger on pet swap to work on the soulbeast when merged but those are very few:

• Clarion Bond
• Poison Master
• Zephyr's Speed

@Razor.9872 said:What if, when you pet swapped, it instantly recharged beastmode? That seems like the best of both worlds, in my opinion.Genius!

@anduriell.6280 said:

@"DuckDuckBOOM.4097" said:One more thing they would have to add to beast mode pet swap is a cast time. If the swap was instant cast like pet swapping, I think it'd be OP because it would have no tell and your enemy couldn't easily tell what you are now merged with. I also think they need to change the color of the green swirl around a merged SB to better reflect what type of pet they are attuned to.No they do not need this.As i said before: Soulbeast just need the button in the UI. As simple as that.

Simple doesn't mean good or balanced

We already have the mechanic when we dismount that we get back to merged state. So the code is already there, whenever we swap pets the Soulbeast only need to do a quick out and in animation. So it's a visual queue and other players can see easily the Soulbeast change pet.

Traits which trigger on pet swap to work on the soulbeast when merged but those are very few:

• Clarion Bond
• Poison Master
• Zephyr's Speed

Soul beast is considered very strong in PvP/WvW and I would attribute a large part of that to Fresh Reinforcements and Unstoppable Union. Those are meant to be balanced with at least 10 seconds between each time they proc.

Consider fresh reinforcements + Clarion bond, zephyr's speed or spirited arrival with your proposed changes: You press F4 while in beast mode, instantly unmerge then instantly swap pets, which can instantly proc the above traits which give boons to both you and your pet, then instantly merge to proc fresh reinforcements again. To make this worst on balance, you could do the normal boon beast combo and merge with the pet. Then hit F4 to instantly do everything I just listed above because there is nothing in your "easy" solution to prevent this from happening (No ICD on FR). Obviously boon beast doesn't bring all of those traits but do you see why your "easy" solution could potentially get out of hand for balance? Someone else suggested instantly refreshing merge when you swap pets. Now that I think about it, that would probably be even worst: Do the normal boon combo/merge. Unmerge, swap pets and instead of the combo being instant, you could toss in a quick boon combo before merging again to amplify the boons even more. FR just got toned down because Anet thinks boon beast is strong already. Your idea is the "easy" but bad balance call to make.

Consider unstoppable union. It's supposed to be 3 seconds unblockable every 10 seconds (minimum + extra time spent merged). There are already complaints about this as a really strong adept trait. Your "easy" idea made that 6 seconds nonstop unblockable. Alternatively, you press F4 instantly for more unblockable since UU also doesn't have an ICD. That's a huge change in how much unblockable a SB has access to.

The reason I suggest an actual F4 button with new functionality and a cast time is to try and prevent the above. If you swap while merged, the traits that proc on pet swap proc once around you. No bonus entering beast mode procs. Even then, lesser clarion bond makes attacks unblockable. If the new F4 button is instant cast, you can start channeling an attack, enemy tries to block or reflect, you hit F4 mid channel and keep attacking (since instant skills don't cancel channels). This would be really strong. More so than unstoppable union because you can at least predict it: they have to be unmerged for at least 10 seconds. So that's why the F4 needs a cast time.