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Alternative Tradeoff for the Soulbeast


Soilder.3607

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I accept the current tradeoff for the Soulbeast as is and admit that it was needed. However, I believe a better option would've been the following:

  • Instead of having access to pets at all, the Soulbeast is locked in Beastmode permanently. He can still access the pet menu via the K button, or other keybind, and change his merged pets while out of combat.
  • The Soulbeast gains access to pet swap while in Beastmode, limited as it was prior to a 15 second cooldown, traitable to 12 seconds. Swapping pets in Beastmode activates all appropriate traits and changes your Beastmode skills to those of the pet you swapped to.
  • Traits and other such material that activate upon entering, or leaving, Beastmode would be adjusted for this new functionality. For example, Unstoppable Union could grant you boons and remove movement impairing conditions when swapping pets while in Beastmode.

To me, this would've been a more enjoyable solution. It places more skills directly in the hands of the Soulbeast, gives the Soulbeast an appropriate nerf, and encourages a playstyle that is not found in both Core Ranger and Druid.

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I remember a thread a month or two back of people discussing what a possible SB trade off would be and it was between the one pet limit and this perma-merged idea. I agree that either option seemed acceptable, but in my opinion the one pet trade off would be better.

I think one issue that could arise from the perma-merged idea is that because people have no visual indicator of what pet you are merged with, that could cause issues in PvP/WvW. As it is currently, you can enter combat merged and unless the enemy hovers over your buff bar and checks, or watches why abilities you use, they have no idea what pet you would be merged with. However, because old SB would un-merge and swap regularly, people were able to see what pets you are using and merged with. Because there’s no unique indicator that shows exactly what pet you have merged, opponents would be at a disadvantage due to a lack of visual indication as to what you are merged with or what you swap to if you were to always be perma-merged.

I do agree though that either trade off idea would have been good enough. I feel that the lack of a visual indication for a perma-merged pet swap would cause issues in competitive modes, and allowing for a single pet that can be un-merged from still maintains the theme of ranger as a whole.

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They should bring back the more active gameplay of soulbeast. Switching pets and merging with them in and out was fun. You could use the smoke field of the soulbeast go invisible, then merge with a black bear, YES A BLACK BEAR and go all in with the invul skill from the merge. Or how about using a wolf to fear, then merging with the Iboga and launching acid to the feared enemies. That was fun and beautiful. I used to experiment with all kinds of pets because of the previous mechanic. The change does not allow me to do that. What it does is make me pick one single pet each and every time, that being mostly the smokescale. So now the gameplay of the soulbeast is something like this, merge-get superspeed-use merge skills-unmerge, wait for cooldown-merge again and repeat. It is just boring, there is no thought to it just mashing the merge button repeatedly and after a day of it, you will find yourself actually moving back to core or changing the class altogether.

Find a tradeoff that does not involve amputating the class.

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@Soilder.3607 said:I accept the current tradeoff for the Soulbeast as is and admit that it was needed. However, I believe a better option would've been the following:

  • Instead of having access to pets at all, the Soulbeast is locked in Beastmode permanently. He can still access the pet menu via the K button, or other keybind, and change his merged pets while out of combat.
  • The Soulbeast gains access to pet swap while in Beastmode, limited as it was prior to a 15 second cooldown, traitable to 12 seconds. Swapping pets in Beastmode activates all appropriate traits and changes your Beastmode skills to those of the pet you swapped to.
  • Traits and other such material that activate upon entering, or leaving, Beastmode would be adjusted for this new functionality. For example, Unstoppable Union could grant you boons and remove movement impairing conditions when swapping pets while in Beastmode.

To me, this would've been a more enjoyable solution. It places more skills directly in the hands of the Soulbeast, gives the Soulbeast an appropriate nerf, and encourages a playstyle that is not found in both Core Ranger and Druid.

dreams dreams... Wish it since PoF release, my ideal ranger)

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@AlexndrTheGreat.8310 said:I remember a thread a month or two back of people discussing what a possible SB trade off would be and it was between the one pet limit and this perma-merged idea. I agree that either option seemed acceptable, but in my opinion the one pet trade off would be better.

I think one issue that could arise from the perma-merged idea is that because people have no visual indicator of what pet you are merged with, that could cause issues in PvP/WvW. As it is currently, you can enter combat merged and unless the enemy hovers over your buff bar and checks, or watches why abilities you use, they have no idea what pet you would be merged with. However, because old SB would un-merge and swap regularly, people were able to see what pets you are using and merged with. Because there’s no unique indicator that shows exactly what pet you have merged, opponents would be at a disadvantage due to a lack of visual indication as to what you are merged with or what you swap to if you were to always be perma-merged.

I do agree though that either trade off idea would have been good enough. I feel that the lack of a visual indication for a perma-merged pet swap would cause issues in competitive modes, and allowing for a single pet that can be un-merged from still maintains the theme of ranger as a whole.

Add a small pet icon like for Signets.

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