Soulbeast Specialization Updates for the Path of Fire Launch

[KeyOrion.9506]

When I ran the beta for Soulbeast, there were were so many bugs in both skills and traits, there really wasn't a way to see what things would have appeared if it had worked properly the first time around. Considering the # of years of complaints, it all now comes down to "What niche can we slip ranger into." And maybe the whole idea of what Niche, or Group Support, should have been put directly in the trash at the very beginning. Being a "Jack-of-all-trades" and "Master of none" hadn't really helped Ranger in any long term format.

Listening to the vehemence and disregard by commanders in WvW, directed towards Rangers in total has gotten unnerving for the last couple years. Talked down too, always told to reroll to another profession to bring something MORE to group combat than what Ranger/Druid can bring to the table has become second nature conversation in the mists. I been asked by these same commanders, why I continue to play Ranger in WvW, and I tell them straight up that it's the type of play I prefer. And then I am told that i'm being selfish. Selfish. For playing a class that the commanders have no faith in. Now PvE is no problem, I hear all sorts of good/bad stories in PvP. But in WvW it's just one badmouthed comment after another from either commanders or fellow players.

Now out of all this, the only good thing, that Rangers joke about...and to them it is a joke...we're now able to stow a pet. Something which was asked for in nearly five years. And most of us consider this a very late entry to something we wanted, and we're still worried about the amount of damage we can pull off with dagger as a main. And we have few questions when it comes to combat.

Will we be able to deal enough damage which is comparable to other classes?Will we be able to hold our own compared to the other professions in defensive skills?Will we be able to bring something to the party or group, that effectively helps the group in such a way that it would be indispensable?

That last question is what some of us worry about. Can our profession deal damage, be able to standup to punishment, and be indispensable to group play. If the answer is no on any of these questions then we're just rehashing the same problems we had for the last five years. Right now, I hope for the best, but now just expect the worst. Tomorrow should answer those questions.

[Substance E.4852]

@"Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582" said:

He specifically stated next attack.

That's literally what it says now.

"Attack of Opportunity (20s): +50% damage on next attack."

There's no reason to nerf the effect by half AND make it no longer self buffing.

If it can't self buff then the bonus is so unusable that the only way it could have any benefit is if it were some ludicrous modifier like "your next attack does 500% damage". It would need to be that ridiculous to make priming the buff by mauling the air and then not attacking at all until you can line up your next maul worth it.

+25% is barely worth slotting the weapon.

[Zenith.7301]

@Adenin.5973 said:

@Johnny.1634 said:

@Adenin.5973 said:

@FrouFrou.4958 said:

@Adenin.5973 said:Look, I think we can all agree that every bug the ranger has should be fixed.BUT: Reality is, that this all needs dev time, so at the end of the day anet has to decide on what they spend their resources on.The problem many people have is that these bugfixes have nothing to do with the soulbeast elite specialization, you post them in this thread anyways.

All that some people are saying is that if we need to prioritize one "fix", petswapping in BM or condi-dmg-petswapping-bug, many would prefer to start this expansion with a fun specialization and not wait another 4 months for a potential fix, after most of us have already experienced all the content with a clunky new elite spec of our favorite class.

We survived 5 years with all those ongoing issues and bugs, we won't suddenly log in tomorrow and feel like ranger is completely trash just because those bugs are still in PoF. But many people would be pretty upset if they experience the new content with a bad new elite spec.

But that's the whole point of this, fixing quickness on pets wouldn't just help core ranger alone but ALL 3 of our specs, so I don't really get what you are trying to say here? Hurdur dev time better be spent elsewhere - Exactly where? Looking at the list we got today it doesn't really look like they listened to our feedback on what majority of the community wanted to get fixed in the first place nor did they spent that much dev time on fixes that would benefit SB purely alone making it a nonclunky elite spec for the launch day.

So Anet fixes finally a bug many people have forgotten about because they played 5 years with it. Pets now deal more dmg when they've quickness and also pet-conditions deal dmg after the pet was swapped. Tomorrow players log in, spend their HPs on the new soulbeast elite and it feels still clunky, which gives them a bad experience.

Or

Anet gives the player a smooth experience with the new Beastmode mechanic by allowing petswapping and the Soulbeast spec feels already far better. The players log in tomorrow, unlock the new spec and have a good experience compared to with what they've played yesterday (core ranger/druid).

What would you do?The point of this discussion is, why should they fix a 5 year old bug in the midst of the release of their new expansion? Every company fixes the stuff people notice first and that's in our case the new elite specs. No one has ever said that these bugs are not important or shouldn't be fixed, in fact they should've been fixed a long time ago.

Since your clearly not getting it, I'll lay it out plain and simple for you.

-Because rangers are already upset about their own damage and this is a major factor.-Because its the rangers core mechanic, Soulbeast is not an exception.-Because Soulbeast brings more quickness to the table and PoF brings more pets to our stable, this leaves us with even more bugged content(traits/skills/pets).-Because as myself and others have already stated MULTIPLE times, this is NOT simply a core ranger problem.-No matter what minor fixes you do to some elite specialization, if a core profession isn't working properly (ex: a loss of 45% of your damage) especially if its a core mechanic, the profession is going to feel underwhelming.-This is not a new issue. Pets have been the target of criticism since launch. For the exact reasons quickness would solve (lacking in damage/responsiveness).-It would open up more builds by allowing players to actually pick different pets, giving ALL rangers, be it Core/Druid/SoulBeast a much better experience.

First: This is the Soulbeast elite specialization thread. If you haven't noticed it by now: Anet has not posted any core balance updates in here because they don't want to talk about them here. The bug fixes you mentioned are something that would revolve around core mechanics. In fact (i doubt it) the quickness bug could already be fixed. But where would we get that information from? Not from this thread here.

Second: The Core Ranger is not broken. It has bugs, these bugs should be fixed. That said, most people here are pretty satisfied with the ranger overall. Ranger is one of the most popular classes. If the class would've been broken or truly not working properly in a way that everyone instantly notices for over 5 years, no one would play it by now.

Third: The Soulbeast is already built and balanced around the core ranger in its current (bugged) form. The "potential dmg loss" of the core ranger doesn't mean in any way that the Soulbeast will lack dmg or wont be fun to play. There are far more important things that will determine if the Soulbeast will be a fun experience or not. Many, if not most, were already mentioned by the community as feedback and Anet has ignored all of the major complaints, so why would you think they would fix a bug (kitten Pet AI, no condition damage after petswapping, no quickness for most pets) that they can just ignore by building a new elite spec around these bugs (which they just did again with this expansion). In fact they probably would've to rebalance ranger after fixing some of these bugs, it would be even more work for them.

And why do I tell you this? To help you understand, that there is nothing special about this time, a few hours before launch day, that would make Arena net suddenly want to fix these old bugs (I am not only talking about the quickness bug) and that there is no reason why they shouldn't fix issues with the new elites fist, before they fix issues they balanced their game around for the last 5 years.

Most people are not satisfied. Get back down to earth or lay off the crack.

[Skuzz.6580]

I truly can't believe how you guys can't see @Adenin.5973's reasoning, and mine for that matter, why we responded to Johny the way we did.Again:This is not the topic to complaining about core ranger things, this topic is specifically for SoulBeast.Core changes will come later today, on that topic you can complain all you want about the core changes, so save it for there and keep this Soulbeast related.

This topic could also not include bugfixes, which there are probably a lot of and we will see in the general patch notes. The few things that we now know about are all changes to new Elite spec skills/abilities and not fixes.The number#1 pressing thing for a lot of people is the pet swap while in soulbeast / cooldown on merging when unmerging, this directly touches the playstyle of SoulBeast, as it is clunky right now and would benefit a lot from a change like that.

[Warlyx.6732]

@Adenin.5973 said:It happened. Worst case scenario. They nerfed pet abilities, they tweaked some numbers to buff dagger in ways no one will even notice and then no one will touch the elite for another 4 months+

No changes to traitsNo changes to beastmodeNo changes to petswappingNo changes to pet AINo changes on getting kicked out of BM while riding a mountNo substantial changes to dagger MH (And I guarantee you they didn't touch dagger OH either.)No changes to the lame stancesNo changes to visuals (green aura)

Do you want to tell us that this is all we get? Animation tweaked, pet skills nerfed and 3 numbers on dagger slightly increased? You must be pretty satisfied with the state of Soulbeast right now if that's all you think was needed. Oh boy!

Terribly disappointed. Don't know what's worse, the soulbeast spec or this "update" to it.

QFT

+

Dagger OH need buffs , anet showed dual dagger all the time ...however dagger OH is still lackluster , GS still remains as the lowest power weapon... Ranger are always neglected is sad and infuriating.

[Khenzy.9348]

You know what would be great? If they actually communicated with us what's their vision for this spec. Are you intended to come in and out of Beastmode often? That stunbreak+unblockable trait means that you'll have to enter fights outside beastmode and only enter it to cast pet skills or break stuns and immediately exit BeastM because when you exit the mode you incur a 10s CD. So what is it then? That means the mode is more of a situational tool than a fluid playstyle alternative.

Also, is it supposed to be a fronline condition damage brawler? With a couple of leaps on the dagger and what not... so where's the defense then? Where are the evade frames? Is it all about about Eternal Bond and protection uptime?

Where's the active and fluid communication from when HoT launched?

[Skuzz.6580]

@Khenzy.9348 said:You know what would be great? If they actually communicated with us what's their vision for this spec. Are you intended to come in and out of Beastmode often? That stunbreak+unblockable trait means that you'll have to enter fights outside beastmode and only enter it to cast pet skills or break stuns and immediately exit BeastM because when you exit the mode you incur a 10s CD. So what is it then? That means the mode is more of a situational tool than a fluid playstyle alternative.

Also, is it supposed to be a fronline condition damage brawler? With a couple of leaps on the dagger and what not... so where's the defense then? Where are the evade frames? Is it all about about Eternal Bond and protection uptime?

Where's the active and fluid communication from when HoT launched?

Soulbeast can be described in one word basically: VersatileIf you want to sit in beastmode all the time you can, if you want to go in and out of beastmode and use pet beast abilities outside during downtime you can. Want to play power? you can, want to play Condi? you can, want to play Hybrid? you can. Want to tank and group support? you can. Really Soulbeast is so versatile, and that's the beauty of it imo.Sure the 10sec icd on beastmode exit and the otherwise lack of pet swap feels cluncky, it's a matter of getting used to:

• Use pet beast -> go beastmode -> use beastmode skills + use your CD skills on weapons (Burst period) -> leave beastmode -> have 10seconds of downtime -> swap pet -> repeat

It's a flow to get used to honestly, and if you look at all the skills we got this is probably the intended playstyle the devs had in mind

[Warlyx.6732]

So Play piano for subpar damage? Thats the soulbeast role?

[anduriell.6280]

@Skuzz.6580 said:

Soulbeast can be described in one word basically: VersatileIf you want to sit in beastmode all the time you can, if you want to go in and out of beastmode and use pet beast abilities outside during downtime you can. Want to play power? you can, want to play Condi? you can, want to play Hybrid? you can. Want to tank and group support? you can. Really Soulbeast is so versatile, and that's the beauty of it imo.Sure the 10sec icd on beastmode exit and the otherwise lack of pet swap feels cluncky, it's a matter of getting used to:

• Use pet beast -> go beastmode -> use beastmode skills + use your CD skills on weapons (Burst period) -> leave beastmode -> have 10seconds of downtime -> swap pet -> repeat

It's a flow to get used to honestly, and if you look at all the skills we got this is probably the intended playstyle the devs had in mind

Skuzz i have to say i think you are deeply wrong and that you will hate the clunky mechanic in a few weeks. I don't see how that rotation is good for any game mode when we have been playing for 5 years with the pet swap as a base of our rotations. I wasn't wrong when i predicted the Druid was going to be very boring and underwhelming because of the every single skill just heal design and i don't think i'm wrong now.

To Not allow the ranger to swap pets while in being merged or to have an easy access to keep that core mechanic in place is only promoting to camp beastmode. It did happen like that in the betas anyway and Anet sure they have already the metrics that will be te final effect.

For me SoulBeast should promote the going in and out from beastmode, but that is achieved by giving benefits to the action itself instead crippling actual mechanics and thus making playing soulbeast an agony.

And as a side note: I would go as far as to think the original intention from Anet is for us to camp beastmode, after all that's a change in the passive gameplay ranger has in PvE. However technical limitations probably forced them to rethink as their developers couldn't make the pet swap to work as intended or to look good. So they come with the idea of now the souldbeast is not meant to be camped.Even i might go as far to say the problem probably was as simple as when we swap pets a new object would be created as such we would end up merged but with one pet around. Either way i don't think to design the mechanic as it was in the beta is good for gameplay.

And don't even dream Soulbeast will end up with 20K mauls. Probably damage from sick'em will be cut in half also.

[jcbroe.4329]

@Warlyx.6732 said:So Play piano for subpar damage? Thats the soulbeast role?

Subpar damage, no Stability or defensive utility (enemies watching for you to swap into Beastmode can just interrupt/kite/burst you), no function/trait tied to unmelding (more buttons to press to achieve the same result you would get with oess button presses without Beastmode).

Yeah, ANet could achieve a more effective variation of Soulbeast by having just made F5 another skill to use and not have even worried about Beastmode.

[Mikeskies.1536]

Pet swap while in Beastmode does not make thematic sense. You and your active pet merge souls together. You don't merge souls with both your active pet and your stowed pet.

[Skuzz.6580]

@anduriell.6280 said:

@Skuzz.6580 said:

Soulbeast can be described in one word basically: VersatileIf you want to sit in beastmode all the time you can, if you want to go in and out of beastmode and use pet beast abilities outside during downtime you can. Want to play power? you can, want to play Condi? you can, want to play Hybrid? you can. Want to tank and group support? you can. Really Soulbeast is so versatile, and that's the beauty of it imo.Sure the 10sec icd on beastmode exit and the otherwise lack of pet swap feels cluncky, it's a matter of getting used to:

• Use pet beast -> go beastmode -> use beastmode skills + use your CD skills on weapons (Burst period) -> leave beastmode -> have 10seconds of downtime -> swap pet -> repeat

It's a flow to get used to honestly, and if you look at all the skills we got this is probably the intended playstyle the devs had in mind

Skuzz i have to say i think you are deeply wrong and that you will hate the clunky mechanic in a few weeks. I don't see how that rotation is good for any game mode when we have been playing for 5 years with the pet swap as a base of our rotations. I wasn't wrong when i predicted the Druid was going to be very boring and underwhelming because of

the every single skill just heal

design and i don't think i'm wrong now.

To Not allow the ranger to swap pets while in being merged or to have an easy access to keep that core mechanic in place is only promoting to camp beastmode. It did happen like that in the betas anyway and Anet sure they have already the metrics that will be te final effect.

For me SoulBeast should promote the going in and out from beastmode, but that is achieved by giving benefits to the action itself instead crippling actual mechanics and thus making playing soulbeast an agony.

And as a side note: I would go as far as to think the original intention from Anet is for us to camp beastmode, after all that's a change in the passive gameplay ranger has in PvE. However technical limitations probably forced them to rethink as their developers couldn't make the pet swap to work as intended or to look good. So they come with the idea of now the souldbeast is not meant to be camped.Even i might go as far to say the problem probably was as simple as when we swap pets a new object would be created as such we would end up merged but with one pet around. Either way i don't think to design the mechanic as it was in the beta is good for gameplay.

And don't even dream Soulbeast will end up with 20K mauls. Probably damage from sick'em will be cut in half also.

have you looked at the first traits at all? They all have to do with entering beastmode, thus promoting a playstyle where you re-enter beastmode, so how can you, after looking at those traits, think that Anet had a camping beastmode playstyle in mind?Not only this, but us having 2 pet slots and thus 2 options for 2 different beastmode setups only amplifies the intend they had, as to, to get the most out of beastmode is to swap pets and re-enter.

I played the swapping in and out beastmode and swapping pet playstyle in the beta's and I got used to it pretty fast. I won't say I didn't wish there was a way to swap pets in beastmode or removing the CD on re-entering (I even gave that as feedback myself), but the thing I wanted to get across is that you can play soulbeast however you want.If you have a power build, then camping soulbeast might be more beneficial than going out of beastmode (thus leaving the passive stat buffs) and re-enter on another pet that probably has other base stats than power (thus not dealing the same amount of damage as you would with the power merge).

Also, mauls not dealing 20k is probably a good thing.. 20k is pretty much the average health amount of players. In PvE it doesn't really matter, Maul does enough right now to be worth it in open-world PvE, and well for competitive pve you'd better not bring a GS with ya :D

I'll agree to disagree to not draw this out.

[anduriell.6280]

@Mikeskies.1536 said:Pet swap while in Beastmode does not make thematic sense. You and your active pet merge souls together. You don't merge souls with both your active pet and your stowed pet.

If we go down that road about roleplaying and such:

• Swap pets like it is implemented right now does not make thematic sense. Ranger should have both pets active at the same time or just one pet with no swap allowed.
• If ranger has both pets active then swap animal spirit while merged does make thematic and mechanically sense.

Luckily this is a videogame and not a movie, so game developers may take some technical licences (having two pets for each ranger may be a bit taxing in the servers) to improve the gameplay and fluidity of the game (swap pets while merged will help to improve pace and intensity of the soulbeast) .

[Heibi.4251]

@Skuzz.6580 said:

@anduriell.6280 said:

@Skuzz.6580 said:

Soulbeast can be described in one word basically: VersatileIf you want to sit in beastmode all the time you can, if you want to go in and out of beastmode and use pet beast abilities outside during downtime you can. Want to play power? you can, want to play Condi? you can, want to play Hybrid? you can. Want to tank and group support? you can. Really Soulbeast is so versatile, and that's the beauty of it imo.Sure the 10sec icd on beastmode exit and the otherwise lack of pet swap feels cluncky, it's a matter of getting used to:

• Use pet beast -> go beastmode -> use beastmode skills + use your CD skills on weapons (Burst period) -> leave beastmode -> have 10seconds of downtime -> swap pet -> repeat

It's a flow to get used to honestly, and if you look at all the skills we got this is probably the intended playstyle the devs had in mind

Skuzz i have to say i think you are deeply wrong and that you will hate the clunky mechanic in a few weeks. I don't see how that rotation is good for any game mode when we have been playing for 5 years with the pet swap as a base of our rotations. I wasn't wrong when i predicted the Druid was going to be very boring and underwhelming because of

the every single skill just heal

design and i don't think i'm wrong now.

To Not allow the ranger to swap pets while in being merged or to have an easy access to keep that core mechanic in place is only promoting to camp beastmode. It did happen like that in the betas anyway and Anet sure they have already the metrics that will be te final effect.

For me SoulBeast should promote the going in and out from beastmode, but that is achieved by giving benefits to the action itself instead crippling actual mechanics and thus making playing soulbeast an agony.

And as a side note: I would go as far as to think the original intention from Anet is for us to camp beastmode, after all that's a change in the passive gameplay ranger has in PvE. However technical limitations probably forced them to rethink as their developers couldn't make the pet swap to work as intended or to look good. So they come with the idea of now the souldbeast is not meant to be camped.Even i might go as far to say the problem probably was as simple as when we swap pets a new object would be created as such we would end up merged but with one pet around. Either way i don't think to design the mechanic as it was in the beta is good for gameplay.

And don't even dream Soulbeast will end up with 20K mauls. Probably damage from sick'em will be cut in half also.

have you looked at the first traits at all? They all have to do with entering beastmode, thus promoting a playstyle where you re-enter beastmode, so how can you, after looking at those traits, think that Anet had a camping beastmode playstyle in mind?Not only this, but us having 2 pet slots and thus 2 options for 2 different beastmode setups only amplifies the intend they had, as to, to get the most out of beastmode is to swap pets and re-enter.

I played the swapping in and out beastmode and swapping pet playstyle in the beta's and I got used to it pretty fast. I won't say I didn't wish there was a way to swap pets in beastmode or removing the CD on re-entering (I even gave that as feedback myself), but the thing I wanted to get across is that you can play soulbeast however you want.If you have a power build, then camping soulbeast might be more beneficial than going out of beastmode (thus leaving the passive stat buffs) and re-enter on another pet that probably has other base stats than power (thus not dealing the same amount of damage as you would with the power merge).

Also, mauls not dealing 20k is probably a good thing.. 20k is pretty much the average health amount of players. In PvE it doesn't really matter, Maul does enough right now to be worth it in open-world PvE, and well for competitive pve you'd better not bring a GS with ya :D

I'll agree to disagree to not draw this out.

Um, 20k not a good thing? We have thieves doing 30k+ back stabs and Warriors one-shoting players with rifle, etc... I think a little ranger love is due after 5 years.

[Swagger.1459]

@Skuzz.6580 said:

@anduriell.6280 said:

@Skuzz.6580 said:

Soulbeast can be described in one word basically: VersatileIf you want to sit in beastmode all the time you can, if you want to go in and out of beastmode and use pet beast abilities outside during downtime you can. Want to play power? you can, want to play Condi? you can, want to play Hybrid? you can. Want to tank and group support? you can. Really Soulbeast is so versatile, and that's the beauty of it imo.Sure the 10sec icd on beastmode exit and the otherwise lack of pet swap feels cluncky, it's a matter of getting used to:

• Use pet beast -> go beastmode -> use beastmode skills + use your CD skills on weapons (Burst period) -> leave beastmode -> have 10seconds of downtime -> swap pet -> repeat

It's a flow to get used to honestly, and if you look at all the skills we got this is probably the intended playstyle the devs had in mind

Skuzz i have to say i think you are deeply wrong and that you will hate the clunky mechanic in a few weeks. I don't see how that rotation is good for any game mode when we have been playing for 5 years with the pet swap as a base of our rotations. I wasn't wrong when i predicted the Druid was going to be very boring and underwhelming because of

the every single skill just heal

design and i don't think i'm wrong now.

To Not allow the ranger to swap pets while in being merged or to have an easy access to keep that core mechanic in place is only promoting to camp beastmode. It did happen like that in the betas anyway and Anet sure they have already the metrics that will be te final effect.

For me SoulBeast should promote the going in and out from beastmode, but that is achieved by giving benefits to the action itself instead crippling actual mechanics and thus making playing soulbeast an agony.

And as a side note: I would go as far as to think the original intention from Anet is for us to camp beastmode, after all that's a change in the passive gameplay ranger has in PvE. However technical limitations probably forced them to rethink as their developers couldn't make the pet swap to work as intended or to look good. So they come with the idea of now the souldbeast is not meant to be camped.Even i might go as far to say the problem probably was as simple as when we swap pets a new object would be created as such we would end up merged but with one pet around. Either way i don't think to design the mechanic as it was in the beta is good for gameplay.

And don't even dream Soulbeast will end up with 20K mauls. Probably damage from sick'em will be cut in half also.

have you looked at the first traits at all? They all have to do with entering beastmode, thus promoting a playstyle where you re-enter beastmode, so how can you, after looking at those traits, think that Anet had a camping beastmode playstyle in mind?Not only this, but us having 2 pet slots and thus 2 options for 2 different beastmode setups only amplifies the intend they had, as to, to get the most out of beastmode is to swap pets and re-enter.

I played the swapping in and out beastmode and swapping pet playstyle in the beta's and I got used to it pretty fast. I won't say I didn't wish there was a way to swap pets in beastmode or removing the CD on re-entering (I even gave that as feedback myself), but the thing I wanted to get across is that you can play soulbeast however you want.If you have a power build, then camping soulbeast might be more beneficial than going out of beastmode (thus leaving the passive stat buffs) and re-enter on another pet that probably has other base stats than power (thus not dealing the same amount of damage as you would with the power merge).

Also, mauls not dealing 20k is probably a good thing.. 20k is pretty much the average health amount of players. In PvE it doesn't really matter, Maul does enough right now to be worth it in open-world PvE, and well for competitive pve you'd better not bring a GS with ya :D

I'll agree to disagree to not draw this out.

@Skuzz.6580 said:

@anduriell.6280 said:

@Skuzz.6580 said:

Soulbeast can be described in one word basically: VersatileIf you want to sit in beastmode all the time you can, if you want to go in and out of beastmode and use pet beast abilities outside during downtime you can. Want to play power? you can, want to play Condi? you can, want to play Hybrid? you can. Want to tank and group support? you can. Really Soulbeast is so versatile, and that's the beauty of it imo.Sure the 10sec icd on beastmode exit and the otherwise lack of pet swap feels cluncky, it's a matter of getting used to:

• Use pet beast -> go beastmode -> use beastmode skills + use your CD skills on weapons (Burst period) -> leave beastmode -> have 10seconds of downtime -> swap pet -> repeat

It's a flow to get used to honestly, and if you look at all the skills we got this is probably the intended playstyle the devs had in mind

Skuzz i have to say i think you are deeply wrong and that you will hate the clunky mechanic in a few weeks. I don't see how that rotation is good for any game mode when we have been playing for 5 years with the pet swap as a base of our rotations. I wasn't wrong when i predicted the Druid was going to be very boring and underwhelming because of

the every single skill just heal

design and i don't think i'm wrong now.

To Not allow the ranger to swap pets while in being merged or to have an easy access to keep that core mechanic in place is only promoting to camp beastmode. It did happen like that in the betas anyway and Anet sure they have already the metrics that will be te final effect.

For me SoulBeast should promote the going in and out from beastmode, but that is achieved by giving benefits to the action itself instead crippling actual mechanics and thus making playing soulbeast an agony.

And as a side note: I would go as far as to think the original intention from Anet is for us to camp beastmode, after all that's a change in the passive gameplay ranger has in PvE. However technical limitations probably forced them to rethink as their developers couldn't make the pet swap to work as intended or to look good. So they come with the idea of now the souldbeast is not meant to be camped.Even i might go as far to say the problem probably was as simple as when we swap pets a new object would be created as such we would end up merged but with one pet around. Either way i don't think to design the mechanic as it was in the beta is good for gameplay.

And don't even dream Soulbeast will end up with 20K mauls. Probably damage from sick'em will be cut in half also.

have you looked at the first traits at all? They all have to do with entering beastmode, thus promoting a playstyle where you re-enter beastmode, so how can you, after looking at those traits, think that Anet had a camping beastmode playstyle in mind?Not only this, but us having 2 pet slots and thus 2 options for 2 different beastmode setups only amplifies the intend they had, as to, to get the most out of beastmode is to swap pets and re-enter.

I played the swapping in and out beastmode and swapping pet playstyle in the beta's and I got used to it pretty fast. I won't say I didn't wish there was a way to swap pets in beastmode or removing the CD on re-entering (I even gave that as feedback myself), but the thing I wanted to get across is that you can play soulbeast however you want.If you have a power build, then camping soulbeast might be more beneficial than going out of beastmode (thus leaving the passive stat buffs) and re-enter on another pet that probably has other base stats than power (thus not dealing the same amount of damage as you would with the power merge).

Also, mauls not dealing 20k is probably a good thing.. 20k is pretty much the average health amount of players. In PvE it doesn't really matter, Maul does enough right now to be worth it in open-world PvE, and well for competitive pve you'd better not bring a GS with ya :D

I'll agree to disagree to not draw this out.

Guess you missed my post...

Yes, the devs are so conservative about Ranger and niggling about 1 second, here and there, about condi damage... meanwhile "For the most part, it's just bug fixes"

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N3XW8yk7jBA

[Levetty.1279]

@Heibi.4251 said:huge damage boost to clone attack(150% damage increase in one case)The only case and all that 'massive damage boost' is going to do is that the clone will hit you for 300ish damage instead of 150ish.

[PookieDaWombat.6209]

I'm not very enthralled by these changes and am still waiting for the "sic 'em" nerf to hit this combo. Also, why bother giving the dmg buff for AFTER the main hit comes. Seriously. The ONE cool thing from the demo weekends and you guys try to "buff" dagger which people still won't use. It still pales in comparison to axe/torch for condi, or sword torch for condi/survivability.

[PookieDaWombat.6209]

Wait...i just realized this was a wholesale nerf on the merged version of maul.

A NERF!

What the...seriously??? So no word on the loss of damage to pet condi damage after a merge, no word on fixing of the stances that were broken, and a "buff" to a bad weapon AND a nerf to one of the only skills that worked out well during the beta.

Just remove ranger class from the game at this point. Obviously no one at Anet likes or plays them on the reg.

[Skuzz.6580]

sigh.. you are aware that those skills don't actually deal the damage that shows right? Damage numbers ramp up on your screen when hit> @PookieDaWombat.6209 said:

Wait...i just realized this was a wholesale nerf on the merged version of maul.

A NERF!

What the...seriously??? So no word on the loss of damage to pet condi damage after a merge, no word on fixing of the stances that were broken, and a "buff" to a bad weapon AND a nerf to one of the only skills that worked out well during the beta.

Just remove ranger class from the game at this point. Obviously no one at Anet likes or plays them on the reg.

.. 1 hour, then we will all know, until then, just chill out :D

[Lazze.9870]

@Mikeskies.1536 said:Pet swap while in Beastmode does not make thematic sense. You and your active pet merge souls together. You don't merge souls with both your active pet and your stowed pet.

Get your useless opinion out of here. Pet swap in beastmode IS needed.

[Lazze.9870]

@PookieDaWombat.6209 said:Wait...i just realized this was a wholesale nerf on the merged version of maul.

A NERF!

What the...seriously??? So no word on the loss of damage to pet condi damage after a merge, no word on fixing of the stances that were broken, and a "buff" to a bad weapon AND a nerf to one of the only skills that worked out well during the beta.

Just remove ranger class from the game at this point. Obviously no one at Anet likes or plays them on the reg.

They definitely don't play it, that's for sure. Not even golem smashing. If they did, they would know that there is no reason for the low GS and sword auto damage at this point, and that there was no reason for the soulbeast Maul nerf.

[PookieDaWombat.6209]

@Skuzz.6580 said:sigh.. you are aware that those skills don't actually deal the damage that shows right? Damage numbers ramp up on your screen when hit> @PookieDaWombat.6209 said:

Wait...i just realized this was a wholesale nerf on the merged version of maul.

A NERF!

What the...seriously??? So no word on the loss of damage to pet condi damage after a merge, no word on fixing of the stances that were broken, and a "buff" to a bad weapon AND a nerf to one of the only skills that worked out well during the beta.

Just remove ranger class from the game at this point. Obviously no one at Anet likes or plays them on the reg.

.. 1 hour, then we will all know, until then, just chill out :D

You do realize that maul is not a "ramp up" skill, right?And you also realize that if you're talking deadeye the fourth skill was also not a "ramp up" skill.

The skill descriptions are clear as day. There is no "wait and see" here. Its almost like you just started playing this game.

[Skuzz.6580]

@PookieDaWombat.6209 said:

@Skuzz.6580 said:sigh.. you are aware that those skills don't actually deal the damage that shows right? Damage numbers ramp up on your screen when hit> @PookieDaWombat.6209 said:

Wait...i just realized this was a wholesale nerf on the merged version of maul.

A NERF!

What the...seriously??? So no word on the loss of damage to pet condi damage after a merge, no word on fixing of the stances that were broken, and a "buff" to a bad weapon AND a nerf to one of the only skills that worked out well during the beta.

Just remove ranger class from the game at this point. Obviously no one at Anet likes or plays them on the reg.

.. 1 hour, then we will all know, until then, just chill out :D

You do realize that maul is not a "ramp up" skill, right?And you also realize that if you're talking deadeye the fourth skill was also not a "ramp up" skill.

The skill descriptions are clear as day. There is no "wait and see" here. Its almost like you just started playing this game.

the full malice stacks and 10 vul say otherwise

[PookieDaWombat.6209]

@Skuzz.6580 said:

@PookieDaWombat.6209 said:

@Skuzz.6580 said:sigh.. you are aware that those skills don't actually deal the damage that shows right? Damage numbers ramp up on your screen when hit> @PookieDaWombat.6209 said:

Wait...i just realized this was a wholesale nerf on the merged version of maul.

A NERF!

What the...seriously??? So no word on the loss of damage to pet condi damage after a merge, no word on fixing of the stances that were broken, and a "buff" to a bad weapon AND a nerf to one of the only skills that worked out well during the beta.

Just remove ranger class from the game at this point. Obviously no one at Anet likes or plays them on the reg.

.. 1 hour, then we will all know, until then, just chill out :D

You do realize that maul is not a "ramp up" skill, right?And you also realize that if you're talking deadeye the fourth skill was also not a "ramp up" skill.

The skill descriptions are clear as day. There is no "wait and see" here. Its almost like you just started playing this game.

the full malice stacks and 10 vul say otherwise

Full malice that takes no time to build up and 10 vuln? Really? Also a ramp up damage skill is LB 2. Not a single damage shot on one skill like deadeye 4.

[Sandzibar.5134]

@Lazze.9870 said:

@Mikeskies.1536 said:Pet swap while in Beastmode does not make thematic sense. You and your active pet merge souls together. You don't merge souls with both your active pet and your stowed pet.

Get your useless opinion out of here. Pet swap in beastmode IS needed.

I think adjusting the beastmode merge/unmerge CD down to 3 secs ala Ele attunments - as thats essentially what beastmode is.. an attunement - would help with the clunkyness.

:D