Soulbeast - Power Melee Stancebeast

The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Strike damage, Control and Mobility

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Normal

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

Overview

A burst damage focused Power Soulbeast build for PvP opting for 2 melee sets after the Sword rework. The recent addition of Mace/Mace introduces a more tanky set to the build which makes it better at 1v1ing on top of being just a good roamer.

Skill Bar

Sword/Warhorn

Mace/Mace

Utility

Skill Variants

Weapons

• Greatsword over Mace/Mace - more bursty option with lower survivability. Players without the Secrets of the Obscure expansion will have no choice but to use the Greatsword.

Utility

"Protect Me!" can be swapped out for:

• "Sic 'Em!" - better burst damage when used in Beastmode, also quite good at countering specs that rely on stealth for survival such as Deadeyes.

• Signet of the Hunt - makes your burst unblockable.

Pets

Polar Bear can be replaced with:

• Boar - strong offensive pet with 2 CCs and some burst damage in Beastmode.

• Siamoth - it's similar to Boar but offers better survivability.

• Krytan Drakehound - better mobility and CC in exchange for fewer defensive skills.

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Equipment

Sword

Warhorn

Sigil

Sigil

Mace

Mace

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Equipment Variants

Relics

• Relic of Zakiros - defensive option with extra healing, just as popular as Relic of Fireworks.

• Relic of the Thief - damage boost with high uptime, but also takes some time to ramp up and its maximum burst potential is slightly lower than that of the other options.

• Relic of the Weaver - similar to Fireworks, but some of the triggers are defensive skills that may not always line up with your burst combos.

Usage

Elite specialization basics

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

• Pet related traits and skills such as Pet's Prowess 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).
  • IMPORTANT: skills that affect your pet like "Sic 'Em!" have to be used after merging if you wish to benefit from them, already active skill effects will be lost just like when swapping pets.

• You get to revive pets in combat by melding with a dead pet and then exiting Beastmode.

General

• Don't trust the wording of Relic of Fireworks, Beastmode F1-3 skills can also proc the damage bonus not just weapon skills.

• Use Call of the Wild, Pounce, Serpent's Strike and Swoop (GS-only) to roam between capture points. These are also great tools for disengaging or chasing after targets, and the Sword skills can do a lot of damage as well.
  • All 4 of these skills are also combo finishers that could be used inside Smokescale's Smoke Cloud for Stealth, covering your movements and burst attempts.

• Eternal Bond allows you to be more flexible with your Beastmode usage by letting you swap pets while merged. With this you can adapt to situations much better.

• When playing with Boar, its Beatmode ability Maul (soulbeast porcine) is your primary burst skill. Hits hard, has a short cast time and a very subtle animation most people won't even notice.
  • Try to set this up with CC, which should be easy considering how both other Boar Beastmode skills are CC skill. The F3 is especially good for this as Prelude Lash grants you Quickness and Fury via trait synergy.

• Polar Bear and Krytan Drakehound also provide access to Prelude Lash.

• Weapon dependent When used in Beastmode, Greatsword's Maul is going to give you the Attack of Opportunity effect which increases the damage of your next attack. It's only the next strike however, doesn't cover 2 part attacks like Boar's Maul (soulbeast porcine). Consider following up with a weapon swap into either Pounce or Serpent's Strike.

• Sometimes you might want to get greedy with Bear Stance. While this is your last resort option against condition bursts, it's also great at keeping things like Weakness, Chill and Blind off of you. If you're chasing a low HP target and you want to secure a kill, Bear Stance could ensure that you get to deal damage without any hinderance. You could even combine it with Dolyak Stance to make yourself immune to hard CC too.
  • Of course this is a bit of a gamble, if the target survives your burst you'll be left without your strongest defensive CDs so the plan might backfire.

• "Sic 'Em!" should always be used in Beastmode. It's a really strong burst CD that also denies stealth access for enemies.

• One Wolf Pack is your other burst CD, adding extra damage to every hit you score on a target. This is best used with Hunter's Call which delivers multiple attacks in rapid succession. Smokescale's Smoke Assault (soulbeast) also has great synergy with this, and you could even combine the two and use SA while Hunter's Call is active.

• Be careful with Blind and Aegis when casting Hunter's Call! If the initial strike misses the birds won't be summoned and the entire skill goes to waste.

Burst combo examples

One Wolf Pack Multihit

1. Beastmode on Smokescale.
2. Call of the Wild for Might and Fury
3. "Sic 'Em!" if you have it.
4. Hunter's Call
5. One Wolf Pack immediately as Hunter's Call connects.
6. Serpent's Strike to evade incoming attacks and keep up the pressure.
7. Pounce
8. Smoke Assault (soulbeast) near the end of Hunter's Call while One Wolf Pack still lasts, this is another great multihit ability that synergizes well with the elite. Overlapping it with HC is fine too, although OWP can only add an extra strike once per interval so using both at the same time could be a waste.

CC chain with Maces

1. Prelude Lash for the pull and boons (merged F3 ability of Polar Bear, Boar and Krytan Drakehound).
2. Oaken Cudgel to stun the target.
3. Optional - at this point you should consider swapping to Smokescale with Eternal Bond (F4). This would give you more Quickness and increased offensive stats, but it's not mandatory.
4. Wild Strikes
5. Flourish
6. Thistleguard (this should hit at the same time as the 2nd part of Flourish)

Both Pets

1. Prelude Lash for the pull and boons.
2. Eternal Bond to swap to Smokescale.
3. Worldly Impact while the pull still lasts.
4. Oaken Cudgel
5. Takedown (soulbeast)
6. Thistleguard for a quick followup while the CC lasts.

If you're playing with Greatsword

1. Prelude Lash for the pull and boons.
2. Maul
3. Hilt Bash for the CC and to reset Maul.
4. Maul again.
5. At this point your next strike will deal bonus damage, use it on some hard hitting ability like GS 3, Smokescale F1/F3, or Sword 2-3.

Sustain

• You're heavily reliant on blocks, stealth, mobility and evasion to avoid damage. Stance skills are there to let you fix some mistakes and patch gaps in your defenses. Once stance CDs have been used you should play much more carefully as you could become an easy target.

• Smokescale's Smoke Assault (soulbeast) is an instant defensive skill with evasion while merged.

• Condition cleansing is rather limited. Bear Stance is more of a last resort for when you've taken too much damage and need to survive. Under heavy pressure use the time while your healing skill is active to disengage and reset fights using Stealth and mobility skills.

• Both sets have access to some minor cleansing:
  • On Sword/Warhorn Sigil of Cleansing removes 1 condition when you swap to this weapon in combat.
  • Mace has Thistleguard which cleanses up to 3 conditions.
  • Dolyak Stance removes several non-damaging conditions, you could consider popping this right before using the aforementioned two methods in order to increase the chances of cleansing damaging conditions with them.

• Griffon Stance is basically an extra dodge which improves your endurance regen so you can avoid even more attacks right after. Great skill when you're being pressured and need to play more defensively.

• Dolyak Stance protects against any type of pressure be it direct damage, CC or conditions.

• Every mobility skill is also a defensive skill in a way, useful for putting distance between you and your enemies. Comboing them with Smokescale's Smoke Cloud for Stealth makes you even more slippery.

• Call of the Wild is one the best defensive skill on Sword/Warhorn, dazing targets in melee and applying Weakness to them while also being a Blast finisher that could give you stealth. The other one is Serpent's Strike which makes you evade incoming attacks.

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