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I'm also in favour having bigger pets! I made a norn ranger, as I personally think the norns fits the ranger aesthetic the best with them being hunters and such in the lore. The pets are small compared to the larger races, and I would like to have my pets at the size of Garm, so the pets could fit the size of my norn.

@aetemes.2603 I don't want to take your point from you, as I also feel Untamed could use a few touches here and there (e.g. let us autocast the unleashed pet abilities). However, that doesn't take away from the point of the Soulbeast aura being visually cluttering. Especially, as it would probably require less work to implement, as they have managed to implement it for Untamed already. And no, you can't just unmerge to get rid of the Soulbeast aura. Well, technically you're correct, but that would reduce us to core rangers, and then there wouldn't be any point to having the Soulbeast specialization except for the traitline and the utility abilities. Therefore, in any content that requires any type of combat, you're forced to look at the Soulbeast aura, whether you like or not. @DarkFlopy.8197 I think that's an incredibly fair point to bring forward. I haven't read their code, so in the end I'm not to determine what's possible and what's not. I just get the impression, from the client's point of view, that they managed to implement it for the Untamed mechanic, which I assume is similar to the Soulbeast mechanic, as both of them seem to work as a "form change" based on that they both change a skillset with their merge/unleash button. But I am at a point where I would actually rather want these visual updates for Soulbeast rather than a gameplay update. I just agree with this statement. I think Soulbeast has some amazing gameplay mechanics, but the visuals are getting overbearing.

Hello again everyone! I would like to bring this thread back up, as I still really hope for this change! I've actually gone so far as to having leveled a few alts up to max level and have played on them for a while in hope for a new main, as the visuals, as mentioned in previous responses, are getting too much in the long run. And I feel my creativity is still hindered, as I always have to make sure that my character's style also fits the constant green aura... Yet I always return to my ranger, and I've done so again. It's by far one of my favourite classes and I personally think it has the overall some of the most fun and enjoyable mechanics and gameplay - including Soulbeast! And it feels amazing that ArenaNet has put this specialization together, but also bad at the same time that it's so hindered by its visuals compared to other specialization. Also, I've seen some Virtuosos complaining about the same issue with constant visuals in regards to their hovering blades. So, it doesn't seem that Soulbeasts are the only ones bothered by it (in my personal observations at least), and I personally agree with them aswell, to which I also hope for a similar situation for the Virtuoso specialization with the hovering blades. And I must admit, I do have trouble understanding the purpose of this aura. So far I've seen other Soulbeasts in PvE AND PvP where their auras weren't visible to me. And I don't see why it would be necessary for me to determine whether other Soulbeasts are merged or not in PvE anyways. I can understand the concept in PvP, but I also have to say that it didn't bother me at all, as I ran into an opponent with their aura not visible recently. I had an easy enough time to determine whether the opposing Soulbeast were merged or not based on, well, whether they had a their pet present or not. They also have a buff indicating whether they're merged, so I don't see it as a necessity in PvP. Although, if people think it's useful for them in PvP, I would suggest an option in the options menu to enable it called something like "Class visibility effects" (I'm all for a better name for that option), just like we have an option to enable "Standard models" and such for easier readability in PvP, if that's what some prefer. But all in all, if I'm sometimes unable to see other peoples Soulbeasts auras in PvE and PvP anyways, I don't see the purpose of it being constantly being visible. Not to mention the other points made earlier in this thread for the constant aura being too much. TL;DR: Bottom line I think Soulbeast is a great and fun specialization, but I really do hope we can have the Soulbeast aura fading away like the Untamed aura does. And also to have the visual affects of the main-hand dagger and beast abilities fixed aswell. Thank you for reading!

As fun as the Soulbeast specialization is, the aura still is rather tiresome to look at constantly. And it still does, in my opinion, hinder the creativity of outfits as no matter what style you go for, you've got to take the green aura with vines into account. In addition to the the Soulbeast aura, there's also some visual bugs tied to Soulbeast that I hope will get fixed in time: The main-hand dagger also has the green weapon trail (the weapon trail from the ability effect) stuck to the blade indefinitely if you miss your target with your auto-attack until you hit something or use another ability. Doesn't matter if you have your dagger drawn or stowed. And sometimes the merged skills also leave a vine effect stuck to the characters hand. That happened to me a few times while merged with the Rock Gazelle when using the merged skill Charge. Now, these visuals are obviously not gamebreaking. The specialization runs great in my opinion and I've had fun playing Soulbeast for a very long time now. But in all this time the aura has also been rather tiresome to look at. And I must admit it doesn't get any less tiresome over time. Not to me at least. Especially when there sometimes are even more visual effects on top of the aura (even though they're probably bugs) to also impact the visuals of the character, as mentioned above. And I want to praise ArenaNet for having made a very fun elite specialization back when PoF came out, but I really hope they will do something about the visuals. Because visuals might not impact the playability directly, but visuals does still have its key role when it comes to enjoyment. Especially when we play a MMORPG where we get to collect alot of skins and cosmetics we can use to express our characters in their individuality. Being tied to costumizing our rangers around the green aura hinders that said creativity real fast, in my opinion. I really hope ArenaNet will do something about the constant effects being tied to Soulbeast, and also other specializations affected of other constant effects for that matter, so we can go more in-depth with our characters design. And I also think it would just make the game more pleasing to look at, so we don't have to constantly look at visual auras up close. Especially as they have already acknowledged that visual effects can be too much at times and have implemented the allied visual-effect filtering.

I don't think the daggers need to be visible at all time, imo. They could just get fired off with the casting animation whenever you're about to use them without them hovering above your character beforehand. I've seen that happen as sometimes other players virtuoso character's dagges doesn't appear for me until they cast their spells and that honestly looks great that way. And I actually do prefer that after having seen it like that. If the daggers does have to somehow appear above the character for visibility or whatever, I think this might be the best option.

I agree with this. It does feel a bit awkward that the pet controls currently change keybindings whenever you change spec to or from Untamed.

Thank you for clarifying. I didn't get your point when you said "but with a different name?" as it came off to me as you refering to the name of the ability. Probably why the misunderstanding happened then. I can see what you mean, but I meant the change to Serpent Strike just to become a "forward evade" instead of a "side evade" as it is now. So I agree with you that it would be unnecessary for Serpent strike to become another dash/jump like Monach's Leap, as Monarch's Leap already does its job just fine. I do think it would be a nice quality of life update for the ability in instanced fights if they made the evade go forward instead of to the side, but kept the rest of the ability as is. And as far as I understood the developers, they wanted to make the sword a viable DPS weapon in PvE. And I know axe is currently the way better option for DPS right now, but I think that it would be nice to have other weapons rival axe, so we can have more freedom of choice for weapons when it comes to DPS builds. 🙂

Perhaps not. But in that case, would you be so kind to revise what you said, so I can have a better chance of understanding what you meant?

No, I didn't suggest having Serpent Strike renamed. We already have a second cast on our sword 2 ability, which is called Serpent Strike. I was suggesting that Serpent Strike could be kept as it is right now, but instead of rolling to the side while evading during the cast, it could just roll in a straight line forward (until it hits the target). I believe that change could help in instanced content where you want to group in certain fights, so you don't misplace yourself during the fight when trying to provide DPS. Personally, I would also like a change to Hornet's Sting (sword 3) as it feels kinda awkward to jump backwards out of the fight just to jump back in with Monarch's Leap (sword 2) again. The evade aspect of the ability and it being a way to reset the cooldown for the sword 2 ability is something I find cool though. In some instanced PvE content you usually just stand behind the boss when you want to flank for the extra damage. So I think it would just risk misplacing you in those cases - especially in fights where you need to group. But you could very well be right on its purpose in OWPvE and in those cases the Serpent Strike might do its job very well as is (I haven't used ranger sword a whole lot myself in OWPvE, I'll admit)! But I just wanted to share my suggestion for a small change to try and help the sword becoming a more viable weapon in instanced PvE content, but I could also very well be wrong whether that is an improvement to the sword overall. 🙂

I think a simple change to help sword perform in PvE would be to make Serpent Strike follow the target in a straight line instead of moving the player to the side. Then they won't necessarily have to rework the animation and all that, and they can keep the effects of Sword 2 without being misplacing the player in important fights.

It's a cool change to not lose out on the natural pet abilities when autocasted while unleashed, no doubt about that! But I think OP's point, if I understood OP correctly, is that we should also be able to autocast the unleashed pet abilities just like the natural pet abilities. Especially as some untamed builds are high APM and mechanist is allowed to autocast their mech. And to that point I agree 🙂 Please allow us to autocast the unleashed pet abilities as well ArenaNet!

I must say that I disagree. Sure, if they can somehow make it a toggle more power to the player in the form of a choice. Otherwise it's just forcing the green aura on everyone with no regards to whether they like the effects or not. And while you might enjoy the effects with your character, I do not enjoy the effects with mine. I should not be forced to dress my character according to a forced aura to look decent. I'm also confused as to why ranger has to be the only one having a permanent aura. I get it when e.g. Druid or Berserker has an aura to indicate a "temporary empowerment". But as no other class or specialization has to have an permanent aura forced upon them, why must Soulbeast? Especially when they fixed it for Untamed in the beta, where they did a very good job of it fading completely away. Also, I stumbled upon a video where the skillbar while merged is so much more visual pleasing to look at. Please make the skillbar effects like that, ArenaNet! Link to video:

I agree It was a very nice change to get auto cast on pet abilities in general, but I also think the untamed pet should be allowed to autocast. In some cases it's better to manually cast the abilties for utility, but then we can just disable the autocast again and use them manually. Therefore, I see no harm in giving us the choice whether we want to autocast certain unleashed pet abilities or not, just like mechanist can

Hello everyone, Soulbeast is a fun spec to play, but I would like to make the suggestion of having the Soulbeast aura fade away completely just like the Untamed. Back in the beta for the Untamed, ArenaNet changed it so the Untamed aura faded away completely as it interfered with the players outfits. I would like to argue that the Soulbeast aura has the same issue. I like to create outfits based on frost, fire or whatever comes to mind really, and I doubt I'm the only one, but I feel like it's necessary to make a nature themed outfit to make my character look good as there's a constant green nature aura on my character. I think the aura hinders creativity when creating an outfit and expressing yourself. And I also think the aura can just be rather tiring to look at constantly. Additionally, I would like to request the shining effect around the merge button (default F5) to also completely fade away when merged as the effect on the merge button doesn't match the rest of the effects. Some visuals on the skill bar can be pretty, but there are alot of visuals going on with the skill bar when merged as Soulbeast. Sometimes less is more, which I think ArenaNet have proven themselves through the Untamed spec, and I believe letting the effect on the merge button completely fade away will help making the skill bar visually pleasing with its other effects. Thank you for reading! 🙂

I do not think the new legendaries are underwhelming graphically when stowed. I think the weapons do look fine themselves, and the weapon effects such as the weapons trails and shooting animations (from what we saw of the shortbow) looks very pretty. And I can't wait to see them showcase the different themes of the legendaries they're bringing to the game! So my post is not about ArenaNet removing or changing the animations or visual effects, but just to "deactivate" the weapon trail when the weapon is stowed to not shift the attention from the armor you put together aswell as the weapon model itself when you run around out of combat. But as soon as you draw your weapon, when you wield the weapons in hand, I want all the special effects they have showcased! If I am going to grind for hours to obtain these new legendaries and then look at them for hours on end, I do feel it's a significant matter. Hence why I voice my opinion on this subject. As @Daidalost.1048 pointed out; ArenaNet showcased two of their new legendaries (the shortbow and the daggers) in their Guild Chat Episode 116. I'll provide the link: I've tried adding the timestamp. If that didn't work go to around 16:47 to watch the showcase of the two new legendaries. As far as I'm aware it's only Bifrost which has it's weapon trail "activated" while stowed. Every other legendary weapon with weapon trails "deactivates" it while stowed.