Soulbeast has literally brought me closer to my pet

[Shroud.2307]

"The bond between a soulbeast and their pet is so strong that they can become one in spirit."

Ironically, the specialization was created due to such a large portion of the community always asking for a perma-stow option. Personally, I've always loved my pets. Playing with their mechanics and being saved in the best kinds of ways. Soulbeast has literally brought me closer to my pet and I've been enjoying working in sync with it more than ever. There are some pretty neat combos you can get going between F skills, forcing attacks and melding at certain timings.

I also had a lot of fun tonight while I was doing map completion with a friend. They were doing a mastery point that required them to use a weapon to kill mobs which I had already done. I didn't want to steal credit but to help them along, I was having my pet do some damage. It was fun treating it as though I was sharing the command with my friend, so that it was like they had their own attack dog.

Though I do understand that they can be a little wonky at times, it's a bit depressing to know that so many people dislike their companions. I have so much fun with mine that I call it by name and very frequently use it to assist other players by making it attack what they're attacking while I'm doing something else.

Am I alone in this, or who else loves their pets? What are some of your stories where it has saved you or you've just done something creative with it?

Last night I had a good laugh at the timing on a knockdown from my Smokescale. I was fighting a Spellbreaker and was at very low health trying to get off a heal. He used Rush to close the gap and tried to Shield Bash me. Just before it connected, my Smokescale knocked him down last second, at which point I melded, used Wordly Impact, knocked him down again and Mauled him for the remainder of his health. There have been many times things like this have happened but this was probably my favorite so far.

[Marcaum.1302]

I'm glad to see more people that actually enjoy the game in their own way, instead of only caring for "meta min/max YUNoLynx00b"

[Zoltar MacRoth.7146]

Personally, I like to maintain a professional distance from my pets. Relationships between work colleagues can get messy.

[FrouFrou.4958]

Bleh, petophilia.

[cafard.8953]

The pet was a major part of why I made a Ranger in the first place. Loved the scavenger hunt to find and tame them all, though I wish the taming process had been more involved than pressing F. I enjoy how SB has me playing with a greater variety of pets now, as the pet/merged skills/buff balance isn't as clear-cut as the previous pet stats+skills options. And because of the merged utility, I find myself managing the pet much more actively than before, thinking ahead of time about what I'll soon need the pet/myself to do.

[extremexhero.9178]

I have begun using jungle spider in soul beast it is so awesome when you are running traps: immobilize, poison field, pull all in one.

[DresdenAllblack.1249]

..........furries.

[GussJr.1643]

I love my little Lynx! He gives me double bleeds :)

[Tora.7214]

I love my thunder wyvern, it saddened me a little that he wasnt a power archetype because then i would have never switched, but I have done pretty good combo with him and my smoke scale

Also im a bit of a solo player, and my pet gives me company XD

Cant remember wich has been his best moment, but one i actually lol about was when i got ambushed by a lot of inquest asuras in a underwater champion event, i though i had killed all of them since even my shark was back at my side, then a couple of then downed me from behind and my shark inmediatly swam over one and one shoted him with a bite. I was just about to press the command for lick wounds when the kill brought me up and it was like my character saying "no no no, im fine im fine, no need to lick wounds" (I mean, a "shark" coming over to lick my "bloody" wound after practically tearing an asura into pieces in a feeding frenzy? No thanks xD

[Wizler.8192]

@SpellOfIniquity.1780 said:Playing with their mechanics and being saved in the best kinds of ways.

Ranger was my first main and I got used to the pet taking agro on occasion which allowed me to dance away, heal or do something else during a "safe" moment. I remember when I played Guardian later and realized, "oh crap, the focus is always on me and I don't have a helper to distract!".

Plus, I like how my pet helps me up when I'm downed. I've revived so many times under difficult circumstances to finish the clutch kill!

[Jermoe Morrow.9501]

@SpellOfIniquity.1780 said:Am I alone in this, or who else loves their pets? What are some of your stories where it has saved you or you've just done something creative with it?

I main ranger, and I had a guildmate yelling at me shortly before PoF launch that I was neglecting my pets when we PvPed. He was right, they were just sort of there in my head...an f2 skill on cooldown and a meh DoT in the form of their attacks.

Now that I am soulbeasting, I am actually thinking about pets, and using pets I haven't in a long time. I started by just camping beastmode in a condi build, but when I switched to power I realized the usefulness of popping in and out for teir native F2s and to swap. makes the class feel so much more finished.

[Amethyst Lure.5624]

Not going to lie, I'm actually HAPPY that soulbeast goes in and out of beast mode more than just BM and then forget their pets forever. It really gives a feeling of versatility for open world. Now, I totally realize it might not be ideal design everywhere (and I do find it annoying you can't swap pet while in BM), but something about the current balance works well with me.

Anyway, I definitely make sure to name my pets and they help so much in a variety of ways. It's so hard to bring up something specific, but today I tamed a fanged Iboga and while I was trying to navigate out of that platform (I'm sure you know it, I foolishly got dismounted) I got swarmed by its angry former friends. I had hit yes on the equip dialogue so I immediately found out how useful the pull was to get the veteran off of me, giving me plenty of room to finish things off with the meld after cleaning up the smaller ones.

Anyway, I don't think pet AI is completely hopeless in GW2 by any means, the main complaint from me is that the attacks are a bit too slow from the pets to land on fast-moving things.

[squiggit.2357]

I'm glad you're having fun.

I imagine it's pretty frustrating though for the people who were really looking forward to a petless ranger and thought they were getting it with how Soulbeast was advertised though.

[Amethyst Lure.5624]

@squiggit.2357 said:I'm glad you're having fun.

I imagine it's pretty frustrating though for the people who were really looking forward to a petless ranger and thought they were getting it with how Soulbeast was advertised though.

Yes I completely understand; I've been pondering if you can mix the desires through some trait or utility choice so that it becomes worth it to always remain within Soulbeast for those that enjoy that idea to the fullest extent. I've seen it done in other mmos, although it's always tricky when you talk from a precise damage perspective to do it. I guess we have to wait and see if anet has the same desire for the spec.

Anyway, I don't want to derail from the OP more, cherishing those pets, so I'll go back to finding the rest of my new ones. :)