Ranger Soulbeast looking at a cannon. "Hey can I merge with that?"

"No, of course not, you can only merge with animals."

Puts a cannon on a turtle. "How about now?"

"It doesn't work like-"

"???"

More Skrapp thoughts, still messing with how I want to draw him. He looks the way he does because his keen grasp on his own ranger magic, especially in regards to his bonds with his beasts, particularly his drakes and saurians (though he does own some big cats and hounds as well). So this is just how he looks on the regular now, even when not fused with one of his companions. Considering the possibility of him even bonding with his mounts. He's a competent hunter but he makes his living as an animal trainer and as a pit fighter that makes regular appearances in the Bane in Black Citadel and fighting rings in Lion's Arch.

Pet swap back on soulbeast.

I repeat, pet swap is. back. on. soulbeast!!!

The big update for soulbeast is the removal of its tradeoff; soulbeasts will once again be able to swap pets while in combat.

-- balance update notes, 06.09.

My Soulbeast, Nona Aldershade. A good spiky gal.

Frostfang Get

Frostfang Get - Last night I crafted my second Legendary Weapon in Guild Wars 2 in large part thanks to the Legendary Weapon Starter Kit boxes.

Good Morning Folks! I realize that I have been talking a lot about Diablo IV and Path of Exile, but I have also been playing quite a bit of Guild Wars 2. I dinged 95 last night in D4 and then treated myself to some super chill Tequatl game time in Guild Wars 2… that ended up being an entire evening of “faffing about” doing random things. I feel like first it is very important for you to encompass…

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(From Horncleaver) How do you view ranger/soul beast's magical implications from a charr viewpoint? How does Vikaros view it? How do you characterize your playstyle for him?

Ohh, I haven't actually put much if any thought into this because I've been focusing on the pre-Elona story so much so far! So I will take this opportunity to figure it out >:) Thank you very much @commanderhorncleaver for this fantastic ask, I had a lot of fun with it!

Apologies for the not-quite-asked-for infodump, but I'm not really sorry

So, he's always had this bond with animals. And when he tamed a Lynx while on a mission to Ebonhawke, he really developed this bond with it. He called it Swiffer, because he has a severely under-developed sense of humor, and if it could speak, it would've become part of the warband once he really integrated it into his fighting style. It was still a wild animal, but there seemed to be an understanding between it and the charr, and some nights, if someone couldn't sleep, mostly Vikaros, because leadership is something he IS good at but that doesn't mean he doesn't get stress dreams because of it, they'd hang out with the lynx, sometimes racing it, sometimes just petting it or taking care of it like feeding it.

So, this is going on, the whole maguuma debacle happens, Vikaros also adopts a Bristleback. Calls it Spikeface, because his sense of humor still hasn't evolved, and it becomes friends with the lynx, even though it still separates itself from the charr, because it's not quite as close to them in psychology/biology as the lynx. But still, Vikaros relates to it in that solitary way, because he also does that. So that's the pre-existing psychology for his pets.

They eventually get around to going to Elona. They find out about Soulbeasts. Vikaros feels like that's something that just... Clicks in him, there, like. The whole philosophy around soulbeast-ness, it fits perfectly with what he was already experiencing. So he picks up the actual practice of it stupidly fast. The warband itself doesn't mind magic-users, hasn't done so since the fahrar, so they have no problems with it. In charr society, he has to Not Talk About It, because that's still mildly taboo, and I don't imagine them particularly approving of it, but like, that's the Commander, so bite your tongue and give him a salute if you know what's good for you, soldier. Vikaros himself, like the rest of the warband, hasn't had problems with magic... pretty much ever. He's very practical-minded, and magic is a very practical tool in a fight. Maybe he's even a little thrilled, privately, at finally having some magic of his own.

Being a Soulbeast, to Vikaros, is pretty much second nature at this point. My playstyle as Soulbeast is, while in combat, I'm pretty much 90% in Beastmode. Out of combat barely ever, because I don't really like the Beastmode particle effect. This could tie in to Vik needing all his focus during battle, and keeping track of his pet(s) pre-Soulbeast was a pain (playstyle-wise, god, keeping track of their health bar, and swapping them out constantly... i got used to it in the end, but it was a decent chunk of Focus) and the instincts from his pets come in handy too while Merged.

Ohh, about that. While in Beastmode, the whole merging business... Mechanically, the pet model entirely disappears, and is One With You. Lore-wise, for Vik, I think he would take on the instincts of the pet like that, and perhaps some appearance traits as well, in addition to the skills he gains.

So out of combat, no Beastmode, because then he'd like to be himself still, and be able to interact with his pets normally. Because being One is interesting, especially in combat (and isn't that a thought, combat already being his second nature as High Legions charr, combined with the above thoughts on Soulbeast-ness) but outside of it he'd prefer to still be able to scratch Swiffer between the ears and watch Spikeface waddle around, and have his thoughts to himself again. Because being part Lynx or Bristleback muddles his thoughts a little bit, leaving his combat-instincts and enough of his speech faculties online to still communicate with the team, but not enough to, for example, develop complex battle-strategies, or write, or work on some tech/mech.

iboga soulbeast charr, for Wistfuldragon on twt! 😳💕

i'm luis-posting this fine evening. Hello.

archer on the walls

I will forever be amused that Soulbeasts can shout "Sic 'em!" to make themselves sic the target.

My cool gw2 characters part 1

I wanted to finally, finally make posts about my characters, starting ofc with my Commander.

Dr. Min, full name Minny My

He comes from another world and sees it as a chance to help people, doesn't really have the personality of commander in game. He is quiet and introverted, not a push-over anymore. He loves animals and wants to and WILL keep every creature he finds as a pet.

He is a ranger, his first pet was a pink moa named Jerry (I'm ignoring the in game choice first one)

He is a soul beast now and his main pets are smokescale named Odin and Fanged Iboga called Robal (Polish word for worm). He does have a druid build for support as well.

His crafting skills are Artificer and Scribe.

In free time he loves to explore the world and learn how it works, he notes what plant does what. If he could he would learn every possible thing instead of fighting dragons but need to help ppl is stronger. Clearly he joined Priory too.

His best friend would be Arthur (Friends character) while his team (not the story one) is Aurora Noirblossom, Marcell My and Pregabalin Accord.

His favorite food is noodles. Favorite color is red. He keeps a notebook where he writes notes of anything important (he has bad memory)

His most hated person is Joko cuz of reason related to world he came from. While being the most interested in Asuran technology and culture.

Idk what to tell about him more so I am open for questions if anyone is curious <33

your local goth norn skaald is ready to BITE PEOPLE (she’s finally level 80)

...Why my doggo downstairs, mom?

Been thinking a lot about soulbeast and untamed. Untamed was supposed to be a spec designed for (mostly) competitive gameplay, allowing access to better pet management in order to let you set up combos and bursts for more damage. By now we can see it's difficult to make it work (because of how core ranger pets and the untamed skilltree is).

Then what they do is give back access to pet swap to soulbeast, even while they are merged.

So now soulbeast has 1. versatility 2. group support (stances) 3. better control and management over pets - they do everything that untamed was supposed to do. The changes to soulbeast are extremely good ones imo, but it leaves untamed in this very weird spot where they feel even more lackluster than before. So I'm insanely curious where will the devs take them from here.

(I'm a big fan of the alacrity support dps angle of untamed, but for now it's difficult to play and isn't as effective as it could be if you have mechanics to do.)

gw2 30 day challenge - day ten

10. an action screenshot!

getting back on with these, i honestly don't think i'm great at action screenshots. at least not compared to some of the incredible shots i've seen people get! i always need to take like a hundred before i can get a few decent angles, haha.

regardless, i did my best. have some more knifey mordrem boy.