Build: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:

TBD

This build was last updated on February 15, 2022 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A condition based Soulbeast duelist build for PvP.

Skill Bar

Shortbow

Dagger/Dagger

Utility

Template Code

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Specializations

Specialization Variants

Nature Magic over Skirmishing: most tanky option.

Beastmastery over Skirmishing: improved Command skills, pet attacks and Beastmode.

Equipment

Shortbow

Sigil

Sigil

Dagger

Dagger

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Usage

Elite specialization basics

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

• Pet swapping is disabled while in combat.
  • 24px Juvenile Hawk is the pet you'll be using in combat.
  • 24px Juvenile Siamoth is your non-combat pet. What that means is you'll only use this pet for one thing: Forage, hoping for a Plasma which can be consumed by Consume Plasma. Use Forage between fights so you may start the next encounter with a free consumable. Swap back to your other pet as soon as possible.
  • Traits related to swapping pets now activate upon entering/leaving Beastmode.

• Pet related traits and skills such as Poison Master 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

• Quick Draw 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 Poison Volley for burst damage (this is the most common), Quick Shot if you need sustain (evade attacks), or Concussion Shot if you want more CC.
  • On dagger/dagger usually can't go wrong with a Stalker's Strike opener as this skill has both good damage and a lengthy evade frame for general survival. If you're not in melee range and don't need to evade anything, go with either Double Arc or Crippling Talon.

Mobility

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

• Roam between capture points with Swoop (soulbeast).

Damage

• This is fairly straightforward, your burst damage comes from short bow while dagger/dagger is slightly more defensive but still brings decent pressure to the table.

• On bow spam Crossfire as much as you can, ideally from behind. Many short bow skills have increased effectiveness when striking from behind or the sides.

• Poison Volley is one of your burst skills and should be used on CD. Due to the cone shape of the volley it's best used in point-blank range, right in melee to ensure that all the arrows hit the target.

• Crippling Shot 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..).

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

• Lacerating Slash (Hawk F2) is a spammable source of Bleeding and Poison from Poison Master.

Sustain

• Every stance in the build is defensive by nature and can be shared with allies, which you should aim to do whenever possible.

• The build doesn't have a lot of means to deal with conditions, limited mainly to Bear Stance and Sigil of Cleansing.

• If damage is starting to overwhelm you and you are out of CDs, just run away with Swoop (soulbeast) and wait a little before reengaging.

• Dodging applies Protection, which also heals thanks to the trait Rugged Growth.

• Applying Poison steals some health from the target.

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

Related Builds

• Stancebeast Roamer - the WVW Roaming version of this condition Soulbeast PvP build.