As a soulbeast, do you miss always having your pet?

I just got back into the game recently and been playing a lot of soulbeast and remain merged most the time for the DPS increase. Personally, a generous portion of the reason I play ranger though is because I like the idea of having an animal companion (the other portion being the aesthetics and combat style of the profession). If I didn't like the idea of a pet I would play something like warrior or theif. I find their AI as frustrating as the next guy but I miss being able to micro manage my pet, it was kind of like playing two characters at once. I really hope if they release a new elite spec it'll have an emphasis around the pet. Not just passive buffs but a spec that actually increases the number of skills a pet has and utility skills that might command your pet to do a special move, idk.

I love my pet. It's why I still play ranger and not soulbeast. I know some people don't like it (understandably) but to each their own!My smokescale John will always be my trusted companion!

Yeah.. that's why for the most part I rarely fuse with them when running a Soulbeast.

Pets are good to have around.

@GaijinGuy.8476 said:I love my pet. It's why I still play ranger and not soulbeast. I know some people don't like it (understandably) but to each their own!My smokescale John will always be my trusted companion!

I've been considering going back to core ranger, but the damage of soulbeast is soooo good.

You are making the assumption that Soulbeasts only stay merged.So no, I don't miss the pet because I use it plentyand I swap between the pets often.

Do you miss your pet when it dies?On SB I can bring mine back almost immediately.

The knockdown of smokescale in pvp is great as is the dmgand blasting/sw2 into f2 is great.

The timing can be tricky, having the right petat the right pet to merge into at the right timeBut other than that, no I don't miss it.

Often I let the pet run around free... And do it's thing and harass ppl and then to break targeting with lb3 then harass more until my pet is in the verge of dying... Then merge and burst kill... Also if my norn moves like a slime and I don't wish to waste a skill just for travel, I'll merge for that movement speed. Then unmerge

As dmg sponge its always good and its a nice tool to aggro mobs and revive allies undisturbed.And its my go to dmg tool at range because i ran all out melee. Currently working on my kudzu and i maybe swap it out to something else but lets see.

@EnderzShadow.2506 said:You are making the assumption that Soulbeasts only stay merged.So no, I don't miss the pet because I use it plentyand I swap between the pets often.

Do you miss your pet when it dies?On SB I can bring mine back almost immediately.

The knockdown of smokescale in pvp is great as is the dmgand blasting/sw2 into f2 is great.

The timing can be tricky, having the right petat the right pet to merge into at the right timeBut other than that, no I don't miss it.

You're not wrong, but it seems you're taking the PvP perspective. In PvP I completely agree, I remain unmerged most the time. In PvE though I have absolutely no tactical reason to un-merge except when I mess up and need to deaggro to buy time for heals which is not all that often. Idk, I just feel like soulbeast kind of tries to pigeon hole you into removing a core flavor of the class instead of having it compliment or improve on it. It would be like mesmer having an elite spec that buffs you for not playing with clones, an engineer elite spec that buffs you for not using tool kits, or an ele spec that buffs you for only using one attunment. Having different ways to play the class is great but it's changing a very core reason I put so much time into ranger and making that change the BiS option for playing it. I still enjoy soulbeast though, I guess I just wish I could go core ranger and get similar numbers as soulbeast.

@Zexanima.7851 said:

@EnderzShadow.2506 said:You are making the assumption that Soulbeasts only stay merged.So no, I don't miss the pet because I use it plentyand I swap between the pets often.

Do you miss your pet when it dies?On SB I can bring mine back almost immediately.

The knockdown of smokescale in pvp is great as is the dmgand blasting/sw2 into f2 is great.

The timing can be tricky, having the right petat the right pet to merge into at the right timeBut other than that, no I don't miss it.

True, I play more pvp and Wvw currently.

And I can see how you would feel that SoulBeast changes the way you play a pet class.

Many rangers wanted the option to not have a pet. I don't blame them.They thought that the pet isn't worth it because the Rangers dmg balance took the pet into consideration.And the pet dies easy, takes a lot of time to get back, is easy to avoid and easy to kill (from a pvp perspective).

Is the pve content you are doing so demanding that you can't use core?you personally dont like the dmg of core?or your guild/team mates will complain if you run a Core build?

@EnderzShadow.2506 said:

@Zexanima.7851 said:

@EnderzShadow.2506 said:You are making the assumption that Soulbeasts only stay merged.So no, I don't miss the pet because I use it plentyand I swap between the pets often.

Do you miss your pet when it dies?On SB I can bring mine back almost immediately.

The knockdown of smokescale in pvp is great as is the dmgand blasting/sw2 into f2 is great.

The timing can be tricky, having the right petat the right pet to merge into at the right timeBut other than that, no I don't miss it.

I'm not doing anything in particular that demands me play SB right now. I've been spending my time lately trying to solo bounties for the challenge (with varying success) and SB provides some utility/damage that is too good to pass up. Like you mentioned, the pet can get deleted pretty quickly. I guess I should just give core a try myself and see how it works for me compared to SB. I had PoF when I started playing ranger so I've not played core since I hit 80. I've just been going off builds and what other people say on it's damage vs SB. I would like to get into more team oriented stuff some day so I need to be at least proficient with SB.

_{^{On a side note of the pets, just a random idea that popped into my head. It would be awesome if every pet had a single evade, but you have to activate it like your own and it needs to regen just like the players. I think I could get a ton more out of the pet if I could just have it avoid big bursts/AoE once in a while instead of having to try to call it back and hope it happens to avoid it.}}

I don't miss my pet, because I unmerge and swap frequently to make full use of both of them.

I wish something could be done about the swirly green merge aura though. Not a fan.

The only reason I still sometimes play my Ranger, is because I have the ability to soulbeast my pet away.

Anyone who doesn't like the pet is probably a bad gw2 ranger or only pver (gw1 due to the flexibility not ranger builds pet was ehh)

If your a good PvP,wvw soulbeast you should constantly hop in and out and constantly be swapping to get milage out of the class, unfortunately Anet has pretty poor/casual desgin when it comes to pve soulbeast zero incentive to unmerge in pve

@Zexanima.7851 said:

@EnderzShadow.2506 said:You are making the assumption that Soulbeasts only stay merged.So no, I don't miss the pet because I use it plentyand I swap between the pets often.

Do you miss your pet when it dies?On SB I can bring mine back almost immediately.

The knockdown of smokescale in pvp is great as is the dmgand blasting/sw2 into f2 is great.

The timing can be tricky, having the right petat the right pet to merge into at the right timeBut other than that, no I don't miss it.

I actually have some reasons to unmerge.It keeps the boontime up and i use my pet as aggro tool against champs or to distract enemies to help allies.

What's the fifth vote option? Is it taimi's scruffy or a pet's custom name? It's vague. Does it mean, u prefer taimi's scruffy instead of your pet?

Sometimes, but what really upsets me about losing the pet is that it just disappears.

Supposedly we merge with it..to..uh..gain a few powers, and stats.. and that's it. For such a big sacrifice (losing your best friend since you started the game, who was "with you for as long as you can remember"), you essentially gain nothing.

You basically just become a Warrior in a different set of armor--sword, bow, stances and all, which Ranger is supposed to be the opposite of. Just throw on a heavily armored outfit and there you go, transformation complete.

I think it would be better if you had a constant reminder that you're still a Ranger, like having your pet with you at all times, in your head (like Revenant), helping you out, like sometimes it would give you enhanced focus, let you leap long distances etc. I think this is what they were trying to do with the power system, but it just ended up having a weak extra skill bar that doesn't compare to other professions.

Even a Dragonhunter's Virtues, which are another bad example, are usually better (compare Firebrand tomes..).

@"Crystal Paladin.3871" said:What's the fifth vote option? Is it taimi's scruffy or a pet's custom name? It's vague. Does it mean, u prefer taimi's scruffy instead of your pet?

I was thinking "What's a generic pet name.." and like a dink I forgot that's a name of a character in the main story. I'm surprised it took someone this long to question it.

I merge/unmerge fairly regularly, and find both states to be useful. I've never had a reason to give it a second thought. To me, this is just another aspect of swapping, which I was already doing with pets and weapons.

I do not stay merged for long. I merge for the breakstun, activating some skills or getting a rez on the pet. There are a lot of good reasons to merge but having them on your side also means that they will be able to cast their own spells (different cd) and do some nice damage.

@aymnad.9023 said:I do not stay merged for long. I merge for the breakstun, activating some skills or getting a rez on the pet. There are a lot of good reasons to merge but having them on your side also means that they will be able to cast their own spells (different cd) and do some nice damage.

I am the same way. I usually run with the Jacaranda and merge just to use its healing skills then quickly unmerge.

No, because it implies I can't unmerge whenever.Flip the question upside down: do I miss the merge mechanic when not running soulbeast? All the time. It makes the entire pet mechanic more fluid and interactive.

Thematically, yes.

Mechanically, no, not at all.

We put out more damage when fused, I don't get put into combat when an enemy attacks an npc following me in an erratic pathing, and I get a constant movement speed buff.

To be honest, sometimes I'm glad we aren't getting another xpack (that we know of currently) because I have 0 faith that Anet can make a third spec that doesn't have pet fusing but still feels as good to play as the SB.

A good Soulbeast is constantly dancing in and out of beastmode, maximizing those pet attacks and getting double shots of the same off per beastmode. You shouldn't be missing your pet. They're always with you.

Even in beastmode you're literally housing their very being within yourself. Soulbeasts are crazy like that.

No, i hate the pet and never un-merge from SB mode. Pets are useless and an outright liability in WVW, and you lose 600 stats (4x150) by unmerging. Pet skills are almost all useless. why would i ever unmerge?

@scerevisiae.1972 said:No, i hate the pet and never un-merge from SB mode. Pets are useless and an outright liability in WVW, and you lose 600 stats (4x150) by unmerging. Pet skills are almost all useless. why would i ever unmerge?

Put me in this category too. Pet just dies way too fast in WvW to actually be of any use. So I just stay merged all the time. I really wish the Devs would rework Merging on Soulbeast and also allow us to swap while merged. That time interval between unmerging and remerging can be a huge difference between life and death in WvW.