Shadowcat.2680

Quote? As far as memory recalls, Anet stated they wanted tradeoff for elite specs, no for "Hot elite specs". It's the way the April 23rd release notes phrased it. In reference to the elite specs, HoT is mentioned and PoF isn't. And then when they go on to list elite specs that don't have trade-offs, only HoT specs are listed (in a list of five specs, not one PoF spec appears). I could be reading into it, but Anet does have a history of nerfing older specs to make the newer content look more desirable. Ah, I see why you read it that way. The update reads: The way I read it is that they mentioned hot because that's when they introduced elite specs. Later in the patch notes they give examples of professions where there is a tradeoff already, and they totally include pof ones there. Necromancer (not scourge) is the example they give as having a trade-off already. But it's somewhat erroneous of a claim to make on their part since scourge is superior to core necro despite losing death shroud. I'm convinced they see soulbeast in a similar light. It has the trade-off of losing its pet in exchange for beastmode. Since beastmode is from their latest expansion, it's the superior mechanic to what's being given up. To go back to their example of necro (since their example encompasses both necro elites), reaper gives up death shroud also, but what it gains is no longer incredibly potent like it was during HoT (condi reapers were grossly overturned). They didn't make reaper's trade-off a nerf until just before PoF was released.

Quote? As far as memory recalls, Anet stated they wanted tradeoff for elite specs, no for "Hot elite specs". It's the way the April 23rd release notes phrased it. In reference to the elite specs, HoT is mentioned and PoF isn't. And then when they go on to list elite specs that don't have trade-offs, only HoT specs are listed (in a list of five specs, not one PoF spec appears). I could be reading into it, but Anet does have a history of nerfing older specs to make the newer content look more desirable.

Soulbeast can use its core mechanic while not Merged. Berserker cant use normal burst at all. Berserker has a duration.Soulbeast can be used permanent. Berserker needs a resource.Soulbeast doesnt. Berserker Form can be interupted. Can Merging be interupted? Oh you were serious. I really thought the post was badly written sarcasm, but you're serious. In all seriousness, at least a few of those 'Updates' to Berserk Mode are heading for Beast Mode. A duration and cast time may be imminent. I doubt it. At a design level, berserk mode and beastmode have never had much in common. Berserk has always had a set duration and has always been a burstier mode than beastmode. Keep in mind too that beastmode is far more challenging for them to change (from a code viewpoint) as a mechanic. Soulbeast was the hardest PoF spec for them to implement simply because of needing to get rid of the pet for beastmode (the engine wasn't even capable of this back in HoT). Beastmode was a buggy mess on release and I don't know that they'd be all that eager to touch it since it's currently working. Nerfs to soulbeast may very well be incoming, but expect nerfs to come in the numbers somewhere, not in a change that'll force them to tackle beastmode again. Oh I expect the numbers to change, but Anet themselves want to impose tradeoffs for E-Specs, and for Rangers that could either mean touching pets to make them weaker (like druid), removing a pet entirely (makes sense for Soulbeast), or tinkering with Beastmode like I mentioned above. Changing Beastmode may cause the least QQ honestly, as the mere prospect of taking a pet away has been giving rangers the vapors. Anet specified they wanted trade-offs for HoT professions. Expect "trade-offs" for the PoF professions to happen around the release of the next expansion.

Soulbeast can use its core mechanic while not Merged. Berserker cant use normal burst at all. Berserker has a duration.Soulbeast can be used permanent. Berserker needs a resource.Soulbeast doesnt. Berserker Form can be interupted. Can Merging be interupted? Oh you were serious. I really thought the post was badly written sarcasm, but you're serious. In all seriousness, at least a few of those 'Updates' to Berserk Mode are heading for Beast Mode. A duration and cast time may be imminent. I doubt it. At a design level, berserk mode and beastmode have never had much in common. Berserk has always had a set duration and has always been a burstier mode than beastmode. Keep in mind too that beastmode is far more challenging for them to change (from a code viewpoint) as a mechanic. Soulbeast was the hardest PoF spec for them to implement simply because of needing to get rid of the pet for beastmode (the engine wasn't even capable of this back in HoT). Beastmode was a buggy mess on release and I don't know that they'd be all that eager to touch it since it's currently working. Nerfs to soulbeast may very well be incoming, but expect nerfs to come in the numbers somewhere, not in a change that'll force them to tackle beastmode again.

If that would be so, then answer me why there was so much hate towards rangers (SB) even before mount release? Thank you, nice discuss, we should have another one in the future.Have a good day. And there is no hate at all for double pistol Thieves. I dismount people all the time with Unload. The difference is the range, I only have 900...P/P doesn't regularly get hate because it's a meme build for competitive modes that stops being effective the second your enemy knows the #3 spam is incoming.

I doubt Anet will implement one pet only for soulbeast simply because it'd be challenging to code (and likely a buggy mess if they did try). Anyhow. Only HoT professions got "trade-offs." PoF sales must have lagged.

Don't confuse live streams and edited youtube vids. The players who only do youtube roaming montages aren't as skilled as their edits might lead you to believe.

Remember too that you don't need to take part in the actual taking of the keep to get credit. Just kill guards at an enemy keep and you'll get credit if it later flips to your team, even if that flip happens hours later. You will need to kill guards again if you swap toons though.

Already have a full zerk soulbeast named Pin Snipe Soulbeast to instantly kill enemy commanders with my multiple sources of unblockables and endure pain with resistance on pet for the big blob battles. Ranger as no spot in zerg fights? You have to be kidding me lmao. Power revs don't even exist anymore when I snipe them wit unblockable auto attacks from across the map. Tell me 1800 range unblockable piercing rapid fire with quickness and 25 might and 3k+ power with invulns has no spot in a zerg lmao. Then you should try and pay attention to the duration of your merged (w/ bear) Defy Pain in game. It doesn't last 5 secs. :)

I've always thought "ganking" meant 100 to 0ing someone unexpectedly (e.g. from stealth).

@Ruufio.1496 @EremiteAngel.9765 Please play the profession in game for more than a minute before posting on the forums to ask for nerfs. You've both posted misinformation that does not contribute in any fashion to a balance discussion. You undermine your own arguments.

Not true after the recent changes.I've been seeing more and more soulbeasts being used in guild comps.Perhaps pug squads have not caught wind of that trend yet or perhaps only organised guilds can pull it off. Video here near the end showing a guild comp running at least 2 soulbeasts out of the roughly 10 players that they had. So 1 soulbeast per party of 5? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCJB-1ZAB8M Don't know that you can claim a guild comp is using multiple soulbeasts when only one was from the same guild as the other players. I also wouldn't call them boonbeasts as the pug soulbeast was a marksmanship build and the guild one didn't have moa stance on its bar either.

@DeceiverX.8361Just about everything I stated in my above post is fact, so not sure what to tell you. SoS (not Stoneform, my post never referenced Stoneform) already had its cd/duration halved. The range of ranger longbow is due to how arcing projectiles work. The only thing subjective about my earlier post is whether or not a soulbeast would choose to leave beastmode immediately upon entering it for the sake of maximizing UU uptime at the cost of less time actually spent in beastmode.

That's not how invulns work. Unblockable attacks only affect blocks and projectile reflects. The only thing I can think of is Vulture Stance proc'ing Predator's Cunning. Otherwise the hits should still deal 0's. SB is definitely a bit overloaded right now. I haven't played ranger in ages but when I want to 1v1 someone it's definitely the class I swap to and almost always win. I don't really have a problem with ranger dealing the damage it can deal so much as I have a problem with how it goes about dealing it. SB gives a ton of mobility and utility to the ranger that it otherwise never really had before, and the way it goes about dealing its damage is very low-risk and very much harshly counters a lot of elements of the game (unblockables, Sic 'Em/stealth, etc.). I think it may be time for longbow to be properly hard-capped at 1500 range, Unstoppable Union brought down to 2 or 3 seconds duration (it has 40% uptime which is absolutely bonkers considering this is a class easily capable of 6k AA's, up to 12k), and Sic 'Em made into a 25% modifier while in beast mode versus 40%, and Signet of Stone given the warrior stance treatment: shorter duration and lower cooldown, opening up room for punishment. This way not much really changes for skilled players, but the skill floor is lowered a little more so people first-timing soulbeast aren't instantly deleting people from 2k units away. Signet of Stone got its duration and cooldown halved in PvP and WvW in the March balance patch. It now has a 3 sec duration with a 40 sec cd versus the 6 sec duration it used to have on an 80 sec cd. Unstoppable Union doesn't have 40% uptime. I'm guessing you're getting that number from its 4 sec duration and beastmode's 10 sec cd. Beastmode's cd starts on leaving it, not on entering it, so a soulbeast trying to have max uptime on unblockable through Unstoppable Union alone would be unblockable 4 secs out of every 14 secs, giving the trait about 28.5% uptime assuming the soulbeast leaves beastmode the second the trait's effect ends. Longbow range is consistent with every other weapon in the game with arcing projectiles (every bow, ele staff autoattack, mortar kit, etc). Hard capping longbow to 1500 would require a change to arcing projectiles having a greater range than stated in tooltips and wouldn't be a change made to ranger longbow itself.

@whoknocks.4935You have ranger mains telling you it doesn't work the way you think because of the claims you've posted about what soulbeast is capable of that just aren't accurate. For example: soulbeast does not have near perma protection from dodges with the minor in Wilderness Survival. It's 2 1/2 secs of protection per dodge with the 20% boon duration from durability runes. For another example: there is no immobilization trait soulbeast can run to keep someone rooted. Lesser Muddy Terrain immobilizes on creation only. For a third example: there is no way to precast Worldly Impact. The animation roots the soulbeast and soulbeast lacks any ports to move with once the animation has started. If a soulbeast is built to take someone 100 to 0 or 100 to 25 (depending on the target) from rapid fire, it has to spend most of its resources to do so. The soulbeast in the vid you added to this thread does not hit that hard against most targets with its rapid fire because it's not built to burst with longbow alone (looks to be a BM/WS build for most of the vid). The times the soulbeast does do more damage with rapid fire in the vid are when it has might from SotP or when it uses maul from greatsword before switching to longbow.