Soulbeast - Power DPS
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: 
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 or to bring Ranger utility with a small personal DPS loss.
Skill Bar
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 & Spear - the best damage and some ranged potential.
- Axe/Axe & Hammer - the best damage option for players that don't own Janthir Wilds (but do own Secrets of the Obscure)
- Sword - can replace mainhand Axe to provide 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:
- Spear 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, ⇒ is a powerful attack). This is also the best option available to players that don't own Secrets of the Obscure or Janthir Wilds.
- Spear 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.
Pets Variants
Pig not only provides the highest DPS, but has a powerful CC in . 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 is a moderate 5man heal, which may be the most useful.
Skill Variants
Utility
Never replace
- - an effective 66% boon duration increase, which can be shared 5man with the trait . This can allow others in your sub to provide more boons with lower boon duration if they coordinate their skill casts with . Since Moa Stance only lasts on allies for 5 seconds when shared, this will require a lot of coordination to be effective.
- - if CC is needed, e.g. Slothasor and Samarog.
- - AoE stunbreak.
Template Code
Specializations
- Bring if using a greatsword, or if your personal
Fury is low. - is higher damage for phases lasting less than 20 seconds.
Equipment
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
x6
x18
Equipment Variants
- is the best option when not using Spear.
- on longbow in fractals, if phases start with a breakbar.
- 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 , 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 and while under the damage buff of . The rotation is also designed to keep up the 10% damage buff from 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 with and using off cooldown to maintain .
Spear Rotation
Ranger's spear is unique because all of its 2-5 skills have their own stealth attacks. provides stealth, and as an ammo skill you can use it frequently to access these stealth attacks. This skill also has a unique effect that allows you to use these stealth attacks even if you get revealed, though using any stealth attack will remove this effect.
Opener
- (optional) - You can use this on encounters that start with a defiance bar for an extra 300 CC. This does delay its use later in your rotation though, so is not recommended unless the encounter has phases of ~20s or shorter.
- - triggers
Weapon swap
Axe/Axe Loop
- - you have some time left on , so throwing the axe far away will delay the reapplication and maximise the total uptime (make sure not to throw it into scenery that destroys the axe)
- - on the first loop after the opener this won't be available, so use whenever it comes off cooldown
- until Winter's Bite is available again
- - this time we want to reapply the buff quickly, so throw the axe a very short distance
Weapon Swap
Spear Loop
- - cast this first so we can use it three times before weapon swapping
- ⇒ ⇒
- ⇒
- - reapplies just as it runs out
- ⇒ ⇒
- (if available)
- , and during the cast
- Weapon Swap
- Return to start of Axe/Axe section
Hammer Rotations
You can select between the regular and unleashed versions of hammer skills 2-4. You want to select , and . is a small DPS gain, so you could leave it as the regular version as a CC option (omitting it from the rotation).
Opener
- and during the cast
- Weapon swap
Axe/Axe Loop
- until Splitblade is available again
- until Path of Scars is nearly available again
- Weapon Swap
Hammer Loop
- ⇒ ⇒ x2
- - using this here maximises uptime
- ⇒ ⇒
- ⇒ ⇒ x2
- if available, otherwise
- and during the cast
- Repeat from start of Axe/Axe Loop
Sword/Axe Loop
If running Sword/Axe, replace the Axe/Axe loop above with the following:
- ⇒ ⇒
- ⇒ ⇒
- Weapon Swap
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 for even more extreme burst potential as well as a host of sustain buffs.
The cooldown of 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
- (optional) - if the fight starts with a breakbar, this allows your opener to deal an absurd 1100 defiance bar damage
- - start building Nature's Strength and triggers
- - if all skills hit, this will trigger Force of Nature and recharge your mace skills
- Weapon swap
Axe loop
- Autoattack until Winter's Bite is off cooldown
- Weapon swap
Mace loop
- - if you're fast enough, neither of the first two attacks will trigger Nature's Strength
- ⇒ - make sure NOT to finish the auto chain
- - this should be your first stack of Nature's Strength
- ⇒ ⇒ - make sure the last attack hits in order to gain a stack of Nature's Strength
- (if available)
- - triggers Force of Nature
- - this drifts slightly back in the loop as the rotation goes on, so press as soon as it's available
- Weapon swap
- Return to start of Axe loop
Greatsword Rotation
Opener
- and during the cast
- Weapon Swap
Greatsword Loop
- ⇒ ⇒
- ⇒ ⇒
- Weapon Swap
Axe Loop
- - Skip on the first loop. This will drift backwards in the loop over time until it needs to be skipped again.
- until Splitblade and "Sic 'Em!" are off cooldown
- and during the cast
- - This will drift backwards in the loop over time until it needs to be skipped.
- (if available)
- Weapon Swap
- Return to start of Greatsword Loop
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:
- ⇒ ⇒ x2
- and during the cast
- (if available)
- Weapon Swap
"Longbow" Rotation
Opener
- - make sure to let this skill fully channel (the cast bar will flash)
- Weapon Swap
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 :
Axe/Warhorn Rotation
This rotation is much more structured and brings more CC (though most of it is used as part of the rotation).
Use off cooldown - the cooldown is slightly longer than the loop so over time it will drift later in the rotation.
Opener
- - to trigger
- and during the cast
- Weapon Swap
Sword/Axe Loop
- Autoattack and use when it comes off cooldown - try to finish your auto chains
- Weapon Swap
Axe/Warhorn Loop
- Autoattack until Splitblade is off cooldown
- - this is used here to ensure is always active
- Autoattack until Hunter's Call is off cooldown
- and during the cast
- Weapon Swap
- Return to start of Sword/Axe Loop
General Tips
- The extra damage from 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
- (Spear)
- (Warhorn)
- (Hammer) - minor DPS loss to bring
- (Hammer) - moderate DPS loss to bring
- (Mace)
- (Mace)
Ratings
Comments
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