Soulbeast - Power DPS

Part of the current metagame

Our curator decided this build is in the current metagame regardless of rating. The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Direct damage

Designed for: Raids and Fractals

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on November 07, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A power DPS Soulbeast build for fractals and raids. This build brings very high burst damage and good CC, making it strong in short fights or fights with burst phases. It also provides heavy Vulnerability and can drop Frost Trap or Signet of the Wild to bring Ranger utility with a small personal DPS loss.

Skill Bar

Axe/Axe

Hammer

Utility

Weapon Variants

Soulbeast has a wide variety of viable weapon options, with offhand Axe being the only fixture. The following three options all deal very similar damage, so you can choose based on personal preference:

• Axe/Axe & Hammer - the fastest burst and some ranged potential.
• Sword/Axe & Hammer - Sword provides some movement and an evade, allowing skilled players to avoid damage without losing DPS uptime.
• Axe/Axe & Mace/Mace - the most challenging rotation, and with comparable sustained damage. Also brings an absurd amount of CC potential in addition to some personal sustain and group support!

Some lower damage options include:

• Hammer can be replaced with Greatsword. This is a moderate DPS loss, but could have some niche use due to the extra CC, evade and block (timed correctly, Counterattack ⇒ Counterattack Kick is a powerful attack). This is also the best option available to players that don't own Secrets of the Obscure.
• Hammer can be replaced with Longbow, which is useful for precasting as it doesn't require a target and can therefore be done before the boss is vulnerable - particularly useful in fractals.
• Sword/Axe & Axe/Warhorn is the best option for sustained ranged damage.

Pets Variants

Pig not only provides the highest DPS, but has a powerful CC in Brutal Charge (soulbeast porcine). As it's also a core option, this makes it pretty much the only pet of note. If there is some niche utility you desire, any of the other Ferocious pets can be taken. Red Moa's F1 skill Harmonic Cry (soulbeast) is a moderate 5man heal, which may be the most useful.

Skill Variants

Utility

Never replace "Sic 'Em!"

• Moa Stance - an effective 66% boon duration increase, which can be shared 5man with the trait Leader of the Pack. This can allow others in your sub to provide more boons with lower boon duration if they coordinate their skill casts with Moa Stance. Since Moa Stance only lasts on allies for 5 seconds when shared, this will require a lot of coordination to be effective.
• Spike Trap - if CC is needed, e.g. Slothasor and Samarog.
• "Protect Me!" - AoE stunbreak.

Template Code

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Copy Template Code

Specializations

• Bring Two-Handed Training if using a greatsword, or if your personal Fury is low.
• Leader of the Pack is higher damage for phases lasting less than 20 seconds.

Equipment

Head
Berserker

Shoulders
Berserker

Chest
Berserker

Hands
Berserker

Legs
Berserker

Feet
Berserker

Backpiece
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Amulet
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Hammer
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Axe
Berserker

Axe
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Equipment Variants

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Severance on longbow in fractals, if phases start with a breakbar.
• Sigil of Superior Sigil of the Night and Major Sigil of the Night on night time encounters.
• Slaying sigils if applicable.

Consumables

Food

• or ascended versions

Utility

• or slaying potions

Usage

Rotation Fundamentals

Whilst merged with your pet, you gain multiple benefits. Not only do you gain stats and skills from the merged pet, but all of the traits in the Beastmastery line that affect your pet now affect you instead. Crucially, this also applies to the skill "Sic 'Em!", giving you a period where you deal 25% extra damage against your target!

The logic behind this rotation is to use your high burst damage skills such as Worldly Impact and Whirling Defense while under the damage buff of "Sic 'Em!". The rotation is also designed to keep up the 10% damage buff from Twice as Vicious as much as possible, using CC skills to proc the buff.

Beginner Rotation

Camp Sword/Axe (if you want a ranged option then Axe/Warhorn will do more damage than Longbow), and mostly just use skills as they come off cooldown. The primary thing to focus on is pairing "Sic 'Em!" with Whirling Defense and using Path of Scars off cooldown to maintain Twice as Vicious.

Mace Rotation

Not only is mace a potent pair of weapons in their own right, they provide a second 10% damage buff to combine with "Sic 'Em!" for even more extreme burst potential as well as a host of sustain buffs.

The cooldown of Frost Trap is a fair bit longer than the whole loop, so it will drift backwards in the rotation over time. Just use it off cooldown.

Opener

1. One Wolf Pack
2. Frost Trap
3. Brutal Charge (soulbeast porcine) (optional) - if the fight starts with a breakbar, this allows your opener to deal an absurd 1100 defiance bar damage
4. "Sic 'Em!"
5. Oaken Cudgel - start building Nature's Strength and triggers Twice as Vicious
6. Wild Strikes
7. Thistleguard
8. Flourish - if all skills hit, this will trigger Force of Nature and recharge your mace skills
9. Wild Strikes
10. Thistleguard
11. Flourish
12. Weapon swap

Axe loop

1. Path of Scars
2. Splitblade
3. Winter's Bite
4. Maul (soulbeast porcine)
5. Whirling Defense
6. Splitblade
7. Autoattack until Winter's Bite is off cooldown
8. Winter's Bite
9. Worldly Impact
10. Splitblade
11. Path of Scars
12. Weapon swap

Mace loop

1. Flourish
2. Thistleguard - if you're fast enough, neither of the first two attacks will trigger Nature's Strength
3. Maul (soulbeast porcine)
4. Germinate ⇒ Burgeon - make sure NOT to finish the auto chain
5. Oaken Cudgel - this should be your first stack of Nature's Strength
6. Germinate ⇒ Burgeon ⇒ Cultivate - make sure the last attack hits in order to gain a stack of Nature's Strength
7. One Wolf Pack (if available)
8. Flourish
9. Wild Strikes - triggers Force of Nature
10. "Sic 'Em!" - this drifts slightly back in the loop as the rotation goes on, so press as soon as it's available
11. Wild Strikes
12. Thistleguard
13. Flourish
14. Weapon swap
15. Return to start of Axe loop

Rotation example

Hammer Rotations

You can select between the regular and unleashed versions of hammer skills 2-4. You want to select Unleashed Wild Swing, Unleashed Savage Shock Wave and Unleashed Thump. Unleashed Overbearing Smash is a small DPS gain, so you could leave it as the regular version as a CC option (omitting it from the rotation).

Opener

1. One Wolf Pack
2. Frost Trap
3. Brutal Charge (soulbeast porcine) and "Sic 'Em!" during the cast
4. Maul (soulbeast porcine)
5. Unleashed Savage Shock Wave
6. Unleashed Wild Swing
7. Weapon swap

Axe/Axe Loop

1. Path of Scars
2. Winter's Bite
3. Splitblade
4. Whirling Defense
5. Ricochet until Splitblade is available again
6. Splitblade
7. Worldly Impact
8. Winter's Bite
9. Ricochet until Path of Scars is nearly available again
10. Maul (soulbeast porcine)
11. Path of Scars
12. Splitblade
13. Weapon Swap

Hammer Loop

1. Unleashed Overbearing Smash
2. Unleashed Savage Shock Wave
3. Unleashed Wild Swing
4. Hammer Strike ⇒ Hammer Slam ⇒ Heavy Smash - Force x2
5. Unleashed Thump - using this here maximises Relic of Fireworks uptime
6. Hammer Strike ⇒ Hammer Slam ⇒ Heavy Smash - Force
7. Unleashed Wild Swing
8. Hammer Strike ⇒ Hammer Slam ⇒ Heavy Smash - Force x2
9. Brutal Charge (soulbeast porcine)
10. One Wolf Pack if available, otherwise Unleashed Overbearing Smash
11. Frost Trap
12. Maul (soulbeast porcine) and "Sic 'Em!" during the cast
13. Unleashed Savage Shock Wave
14. Unleashed Wild Swing
15. Repeat from start of Sword/Axe Loop

Video example (with axe)

Sword/Axe Loop

If running Sword/Axe, replace the Axe/Axe loop above with the following:

1. Path of Scars
2. Pounce
3. Serpent's Strike
4. Whirling Defense
5. Slash (ranger sword) ⇒ Crippling Thrust ⇒ Precision Swipe
6. Pounce
7. Worldly Impact
8. Slash (ranger sword) ⇒ Crippling Thrust ⇒ Precision Swipe
9. Serpent's Strike
10. Maul (soulbeast porcine)
11. Path of Scars
12. Weapon Swap

Video example (with sword)

Greatsword Rotation

Opener

1. One Wolf Pack
2. Frost Trap
3. Brutal Charge (soulbeast porcine) and "Sic 'Em!" during the cast
4. Splitblade
5. Maul (soulbeast porcine)
6. Path of Scars
7. Whirling Defense
8. Winter's Bite
9. Splitblade
10. Weapon Swap

Greatsword Loop

1. Maul
2. Swoop
3. Slash (ranger greatsword) ⇒ Slice (ranger) ⇒ Enduring Swing
4. Maul
5. Hilt Bash
6. Maul
7. Maul (soulbeast porcine)
8. Worldly Impact
9. Slash (ranger greatsword) ⇒ Slice (ranger) ⇒ Enduring Swing
10. Maul
11. Swoop
12. Weapon Swap

Axe Loop

1. Winter's Bite
2. Path of Scars
3. Splitblade
4. Brutal Charge (soulbeast porcine) - Skip on the first loop. This will drift backwards in the loop over time until it needs to be skipped again.
5. Ricochet until Splitblade and "Sic 'Em!" are off cooldown
6. Splitblade and "Sic 'Em!" during the cast
7. Maul (soulbeast porcine)
8. Whirling Defense
9. Frost Trap - This will drift backwards in the loop over time until it needs to be skipped.
10. One Wolf Pack (if available)
11. Winter's Bite
12. Splitblade
13. Path of Scars
14. Weapon Swap
15. Return to start of Greatsword Loop

Video example (with axe/axe)

Video example (with sword/axe)

The optimal Sword rotation starts with a greatsword burst. However, the rotation can be "inverted" at a minor DPS loss to make it resemble the Axe loop above. In this case, the Sword Loop would be:

1. Pounce
2. Serpent's Strike
3. Path of Scars
4. Brutal Charge (soulbeast porcine)
5. Slash (ranger sword) ⇒ Crippling Thrust ⇒ Precision Swipe x2
6. Pounce and "Sic 'Em!" during the cast
7. Maul (soulbeast porcine)
8. Frost Trap
9. One Wolf Pack (if available)
10. Whirling Defense
11. Serpent's Strike
12. Path of Scars
13. Pounce
14. Weapon Swap

"Longbow" Rotation

Click to View

Opener

1. Barrage - make sure to let this skill fully channel (the cast bar will flash)
2. Frost Trap
3. "Sic 'Em!"
4. Point Blank Shot
5. One Wolf Pack
6. Weapon Swap
7. Pounce
8. Serpent's Strike
9. Path of Scars
10. Worldly Impact
11. Whirling Defense
12. Pounce
13. Frenzied Attack (soulbeast)

Rest of the rotation

For the rest of the rotation, you autoattack on sword (making sure to finish the chains) and use skills as they come off cooldown. You also want to make sure that the following skills are only used under the effect of "Sic 'Em!":

• Worldly Impact
• Whirling Defense
• One Wolf Pack

Video Example for the Longbow + Red Moa rotation

Axe/Warhorn Rotation

Click to View

This rotation is much more structured and brings more CC (though most of it is used as part of the rotation).

Use Frost Trap off cooldown - the cooldown is slightly longer than the loop so over time it will drift later in the rotation.

Opener

1. Frost Trap
2. One Wolf Pack
3. Call of the Wild - to trigger Twice as Vicious
4. Hunter's Call
5. Splitblade and "Sic 'Em!" during the cast
6. Winter's Bite
7. Weapon Swap

Sword/Axe Loop

1. Pounce
2. Serpent's Strike
3. Path of Scars
4. Worldly Impact
5. Whirling Defense
6. Pounce
7. Kick (soulbeast)
8. Charge (soulbeast)
9. Autoattack and use Serpent's Strike when it comes off cooldown - try to finish your auto chains
10. Pounce
11. Path of Scars
12. Weapon Swap

Axe/Warhorn Loop

1. Splitblade
2. Winter's Bite
3. Kick (soulbeast)
4. Autoattack until Splitblade is off cooldown
5. Splitblade
6. Charge (soulbeast) - this is used here to ensure Twice as Vicious is always active
7. Autoattack until Hunter's Call is off cooldown
8. Hunter's Call
9. Winter's Bite and "Sic 'Em!" during the cast
10. Kick (soulbeast)
11. Frost Trap
12. Splitblade
13. Weapon Swap
14. Return to start of Sword/Axe Loop

Video example for the Axe/Warhorn + Rock Gazelle rotation

General Tips

• The extra damage from "Sic 'Em!" only applies to the target, so be careful not to use it on the wrong thing.
• If there are split phases, you can use them to swap back to the starting weapon set and repeat the opener at the start of the next phase.

CC

• Brutal Charge (soulbeast porcine)
• Path of Scars
• Call of the Wild (Warhorn)
• Overbearing Smash (Hammer) - minor DPS loss to bring
• Thump (untamed) (Hammer) - moderate DPS loss to bring
• Oaken Cudgel (Mace)
• Wild Strikes (Mace)