Soulbeast - How to merge and unmerge properly

Hello! I came back to GW 2 after a long pause. I was mainly playing thief and warrior. Right now my eyes turned into a ranger profession (specially Soulbeast). I'm casual player, who besides PvE and Open World really likes playing some sPvP and smallscale roaming WvW. I feel like power soulbeast is really great brawler. Maybe this is the class I was looking for the long time. He is durable, have good damage, option for ranged and melee fight. Really verstile class and I love it<3Tl;dr I play GS/LB Soulbeast with Smokescale/Owl, but I find myself camping beast form (all time merged with Smokescale), specially in sPvP. Does anyone have some tips how to merge and unmerge properly? I know that I shouldn't camp Beast Form, but I don't really know how efficiently hop in&out of beast mode.I appriciate all the help, and all the tips :3

Btw. Happy holidays!

@Wystan.2507 said:.... I know that I shouldn't camp Beast Form....

Btw. Happy holidays!Happy holidays to you too!

Idk where you got the idea of you should not camp besstform. If you play boonbeast definitely you shouldn't but otherwise you loose dps if you don't.Even in WvW is kind of problematic to unmerge during combat as you lose utility for a gimpy AI which doesn't really work.

So unless you are playing boonbeast i wouldnt worry about the hoping in and out.

Depends a lot on the build and situation, but camping beastmode is usually not optimal in PvP for any build.On a LB/GS i would only enter beastmode when needed for a certain purpose, eg. for certain beast skills, for the unblockable, for burst (Sic'Em), then leave it again. Camping beast mode means you loose out on the pet's own dmg and utility (both owl and smokescale are useful pets on their own), and you won't have on demand access to unblockable hits or the other pet's beastmode skills.When using Fresh Reinforcement you should make sure the pet is buffed before merging for maximum boon spam.

@Wystan.2507 said:Hello! I came back to GW 2 after a long pause. I was mainly playing thief and warrior. Right now my eyes turned into a ranger profession (specially Soulbeast). I'm casual player, who besides PvE and Open World really likes playing some sPvP and smallscale roaming WvW. I feel like power soulbeast is really great brawler. Maybe this is the class I was looking for the long time. He is durable, have good damage, option for ranged and melee fight. Really verstile class and I love it<3Tl;dr I play GS/LB Soulbeast with Smokescale/Owl, but I find myself camping beast form (all time merged with Smokescale), specially in sPvP. Does anyone have some tips how to merge and unmerge properly? I know that I shouldn't camp Beast Form, but I don't really know how efficiently hop in&out of beast mode.I appriciate all the help, and all the tips :3

Btw. Happy holidays!

Entering and exiting beast mode, changing the pet is part of the ranger / soulbeast mechanic that allows the class to adapt better to the opponents and to be able to use the full potential of the class.I do not know if this advice can help you. At the beginning I always remained united to a single pet then I modified my keybinding and I put pet exchange on M4 and beast mode on M5, this allowed me to use the most effective class mechanics.

Happy holidays to you too!

A swap is usually recommend, but it all depends from the situation you are in.

For example you have smokescale out and you start the fight the fight with it, then you merge and use all the three F skills and you see another enemy coming, you should immediately unmerge swap to owl and be ready to use the merge again for the heal or the mobility leap to kite or run away.

If you run the unblockable attacks trait upon mergin, a frequent merge will benefit a lot more than camping beastmode.

And sometimes when you are merged and used already all F skills, unmerge into the smokescale stun chain will save you.

The meta is usually smokescale/owl, smokescale is an offensive CC pet with a good defensive skill on F2 as well, owl is pure a defensive mobility heal pet.So during a fight you swap based on what you need.

Camping is not definetely recommended because you lose sinergy with lot of swap and merge traits.

pvp or pve? what build are you running?

in pvp i will stay unmerged against certain foes like thieves and mesmers. I put my pet on passive and F1 the enemy that way the pet sticks to them even if they stealth. I will also swap in and out against necroes and fire from range as much as possible and stay as mobile as possible. besides the obvious buffs you can get from certain traits being able to swap in and out of beast mode can help to confuse some opponents and a lot of players will just ignore the pet until they're almost dead.

Merging and pet swap become much more manageable imo if you try and not have them both on cd at the same time for the most part.

Also, smokescale's smoke field has good combo potential with several beastmode skills. Lay down the smoke on top of an enemy and then worldly impact the smoke for stealth. Likewise you can bird swoop out of the smoke with the owl pet.

And beastmode skills will complete even if you leave beastmode before they finish casting, allowing you to use a pet's f2 and/or pet swap as you're landing the beastmode skill.

Your tips and advices are really helpfull :D Thank You a lot ;)Now I know about what should I focus when I want to un/merge with my pet. Now there is only practicing.Thank You for Your time and helpfull adivces!

I happen to have a video showing soulbeasts who are more experienced at utilizing their pets well with merge/unmerge and soulbeasts who don't.

If you see the first soulbeast I fought, he camps beastmode and just goes 'Sic-em' and 'Quickening Zephyr' with the normal LB 2 + 4.He tries to kite unsuccessfully with the owl but doesn't change pets to smokescale.If he had gone smokescale, I think I would have taken a lot more damage.

The second soulbeast I fought on the other hand, was very experienced going in and out of beastmode and utilizes his pets skills well with the leaps and invis and such.I would say build-wise I had an advantage over him but he outplayed me and won.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ctt6piLXQ0Y