Soulbeast - Poisonbeast

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Focused on: Condition damage, Mobility and Sustain

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Difficulty:

Easy

This build was last updated on November 29, 2023 and is up to date for the November 07, 2023 game patch.

Overview

A Condition damage Soulbeast duelist build for PvP with high sustain, focusing mainly on winning smaller fights like 1v1s and 2v2s.

Skill Bar

Shortbow

Axe/Dagger

Utility

Skill Variants

Utility

For the optional slot:

• - medium CD stunbreak with two layers of damage mitigation (protection and barrier).

• - extra damage, adds a new condition (plus a combo field) to the build on a very low CD.

• - slightly worse than Flame Trap overall but has synergy.

• - passive healing, mass cleanse and stun break on active.

• - could come in clutch when you're out of dodges and need to evade an enemy burst.

• - low CD stun break, evasion and Immob removal.

Pets

• Siamoth over Alpine Wolf - they both have and a CC, but Alpine Wolf has better mobility and 2 leap finishers in Beastmode to combo with for more healing, while Siamoth has a better F2 skill, slightly longer CC duration and a bit more damage in Beastmode. Very similar pets, this one comes down to personal preferences.

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Specializations

Specialization Variants

Skirmishing over Nature Magic: this is a more aggressive version of the build with higher damage but significantly worse condition cleansing. You can get away with playing this especially against Power builds, but Nature magic is just safer.

Variants

• is an equally viable option, trades some flexibility for improved bow skills and a bit of extra condition duration.
• is worth considering if you're picking a trap for the 3rd utility slot, but it's going to lower your survivability.

Equipment

Shortbow

Sigil

Sigil

Axe

Dagger

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Runes

• - higher damage option if you don't need extra sustain.

• - higher damage and some defense against conditions.

Relics

• - adds a powerful proc to your elite with boon corruption.

• - better condition cleansing.

• - permanent Vigor uptime which also means more passive healing, damage mitigation and condition cleansing when playing with Nature Magic.

• - this could give you a lot of extra healing in some condition matchups when combined with and , but Relic of Evasion itself boosts the effectiveness of Evasive Purity and heals/mitigates damage via Wilderness Survival synergy. Nayos could help you recover from condi bursts because of the additional healing, while Evasion provides constant value/mitigation throughout the fight.

Usage

Elite specialization basics

• Soulbeast allows Rangers to meld/merge with their pet, becoming one. This is done through which has a 10s CD.

• Traits related to swapping pets now activate upon entering/leaving .

• Pet related traits and skills such as continue to function even while merged, but this time you'll be the one who benefits from them, not the pet (although sometimes the effects are lessened).

• Melding with a dead pet and then exiting Beastmode instantly revives them.

General

• Skirmishing variant: makes your toolkit way more flexible by significantly reducing the CD of the first skill you use after swapping weapons, allowing you to better adapt to situations. There are a lot of ways to use this trait, here are a few ideas:
  • On Short bow you should either open with for burst damage, if you need sustain (evade attacks), or if you want more CC.
  • On Axe/Dagger the prime considerations are and . Both of these offer a mix of damage and survivability. In terms of raw damage could be better than Stalker's Strike when SS wouldn't inflict the extra Poison stacks.

• allows you to swap pets while in Beastmode! This makes it significantly easier for you to adapt to the situation. For example you could use both pets' mobility skills back-to-back while traveling between capture points, or you could swap to Alpine Wolf for the stunbreak even if you're on Hawk.
  • With this trait you should usually rotate through the abilities of both pets before leaving .

Mobility

• Maintain permanent Swiftness with and .
  • Turn around before using Quick Shot in order to move "forward".

• Roam between capture points with and .

Damage

• The basic gameplan is simple: CC targets with , , (from behind or the sides), and then spam as many weapon skills on them as possible + .
  • Use the immob from to root targets while you flank them with .

• Relic-dependent: enemies under the eye of get hit every second, so the value of this relic goes up significantly if you can root them right under the eye with . Consider setting up the Entangle with .

• On bow spam as much as you can, ideally from behind. Many short bow skills have increased effectiveness when striking from behind or the sides, use CC skills to make enemies stationary and walk behind them whenever possible.

• and are cone-shaped attacks and should be used in melee range (point-blank) to ensure that all the projectiles hit the main target.

• should be used a few seconds before entering a fight, preferably while merged with your pet. This gives you a buff that makes your next 3 attacks inflict Bleeding while the skill continues to recharge. Doing this without merging basically has the same effect except your pet will gain the buff, and pets are less reliable than players (although there are exceptions..).

• is the best skill on Axe. While it does less condition damage than Splitblade it applies up to 3 conditions to the target, which overall puts more pressure on them. The Weakness even helps with mitigating incoming damage.
  • This is best used in as the Weakness will immediately apply when the skill hits instead of having to wait for your pet to attack.
  • In Beastmode the Winter's Bite effect is applied to you for 15 seconds even if you throw this skill at the ground with no target, while out of combat. As the duration is longer than the skill's CD it's worth using as you're traveling the map because you'll be able to begin the next fight with a free Weakness.

• If you're using for the damage and not the evasion, you should first make sure your target is crippled. has the benefit of allowing you to use as the first skill after swapping weapons for synergy, while still getting the most damage out of it.

• Use Hawk's F2 on CD for the Bleeding and Poison from . It's easier to land this skill right after unmerging.

• Hawk's Beastmode F3 skill is one of the best skills when it comes to condition variety and should be used on CD to pressure enemies.

Sustain

• A significant chunk of your cleansing comes from . This is also a Water field with a long duration, and there are plenty of finishers in the build that could be used to combo extra healing. Just about all of your mobility skills are also combo finishers, including Wolf's F1-2 skills while in Beastmode.

• If damage is starting to overwhelm you and you are out of CDs, just run away with one of your many mobility skills such as and wait a little before re-engaging. Make sure you don't have an enemy target selected and autotargeting is turned off in the options!

• Dodging applies Protection, which also heals thanks to the trait . With Nature Magic dodging also removes 1 damaging and 1 non-damaging condition.

• Wolf's is perhaps the most powerful defensive skill in the build. It breaks stuns, grants immunity to direct damage and even cleanses some conditions.

• Applying Poison steals some health from the target.

• grants Protection and as has no cast time, this can be used even while CC'd in order to survive enemy burst.

• is useful in just about any situation. It mitigates both conditon and strike damage, makes you immune to any form of CC, and even cleanses some conditions.

Related Builds

• Soulbeast - Condition Trapper Roamer - WvW roaming version of the build.