Build:Soulbeast - Condition Trapper SB Roamer

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

Focused on: Direct damage and Mobility

Designed for: WvW Roaming

Difficulty:

TBD

This build was last updated on March 06, 2023 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A well rounded Soulbeast WvW roaming build with good damage, mobility, CC and sustain. While designed primarily for 1v1s, the build can also hold its ground in smaller group fights and has no trouble soloing camps and other objectives roamers tend to go for.

Skill Bar

Axe/Dagger

Shortbow

Utility

Skill Variants

Utility

Viable choices for the 3rd utility slot:

• Lightning Reflexes - if you're running a more defensive version of the build with Wilderness Knowledge this is an excellent short CD stun break with useful boons and great cleansing.

• Flame Trap - adds a new condition to the build, has great damage and even shorter CD than Viper's Nest which means it synergizes better with the rune.

• Viper's Nest - slightly longer CD than Flame Trap and worse condition diversity, but it offers Predator's Cunning synergy.

• Griffon Stance - on-demand evasion and improved endurance regen/superspeed on low CD is never bad.

• Signet of Renewal - constant passive healing and a mass cleanse when used.

• Moa Stance - better uptime on important defensive boons, which also translates to more healing (potentially even more than what the signet provides).

Weapons

• Sword over Axe - while Axe is considered to be better, not having a melee set can be awkward at times. Sword also provides better sustain in case you're struggling with that.

Pets

• Siamoth over Alpine Wolf - they both have Unflinching Fortitude and a CC, but Alpine Wolf has better mobility and 2 leap finishers in Beastmode 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

Variants

• Light on your Feet is an equally viable option for the last slot, mostly comes down to personal preference.

Variants

• If you're struggling with incoming conditions take Child of Earth and Wilderness Knowledge. With proper use of Sigil of Cleansing, Healing Spring and a bit of practice this shouldn't be necessary though.

Variants

• Leader of the Pack is worth considering when you're running at least 2 stances or you're roaming in a group.

Equipment

Head
Trailblazer

Shoulders
Trailblazer

Chest
Trailblazer

Hands
Trailblazer

Legs
Trailblazer

Feet
Trailblazer

Backpiece
Trailblazer

Accessory
Apothecary

Accessory
Apothecary

Amulet
Apothecary

Ring
Apothecary

Ring
Apothecary

Axe
Trailblazer

Dagger
Trailblazer

Sigil

Sigil

Shortbow
Trailblazer

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

A full set of Celestial gear also works just fine.

Consumables

Food

There are several viable options:

• - this food offers passive damage mitigation and a general stat boost.

• - keeps the 10% mitigation of the Oyster Soup, but focuses only on your offensive stats.

• - great defensive option with Companion's Defense and Rugged Growth synergy.
  • Budget version:

Utility

• - optimal but expensive.
  • Budget version: - comes from Canned Food Crates, way easier to get and barely weaker.

• - if you're playing with Celestial gear, use this.

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 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 axe/dagger use it on Winter's Bite for both pressure and some damage mitigation from Weakness, or Stalker's Strike for extra sustain from the evasion.

• Usually you should merge with your pet whenever it comes off CD for the Vigor, cleansing and Protection from Unstoppable Union. Don't idle in Beastmode too long, use whatever Beast ability isn't on CD and then exit.

• Eternal Bond 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 Wolf for the stun break even if you're on Hawk.

• Rune of Superior Rune of the Trapper adds extra utility and defensive value to every Trap skill. The stealth and superspeed are great at quickly repositioning yourself, shaking off enemies or hiding the animations of attack skills to burst them.

Mobility

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

• Use Swoop (soulbeast) and Crippling Leap (soulbeast) either as gapclosers or tools to disengage (make sure you have no target selected if you inted to run away).

Damage

• Both of your weapon sets are great at dealing damage.

• On bow spam Crossfire as much as you can between bursts, 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. The same goes for Splitblade on axe.

• Splitblade is yet another cone attack similar to Poison Volley, so try to use it in melee range.

• Winter's Bite 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 Beastmode 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 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. Use it as often as possible.

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

Sustain

• Every stance in the build is defensive by nature.

• The build doesn't have a lot of means to deal with conditions, limited mainly to Healing Spring and Sigil of Superior Sigil of Cleansing while Signet of Renewal (if taken) serves as the panic button.

• Signet of Renewal is your last resort against both condition pressure and CC. Try not to touch this skill if you can solve things in some other way. The passive is also valuable enough to be worth maintaining.
  • If your pet is in range, the signet will transfer all your conditions to them. If you are merged, you'll gain Resistance instead. Keep in mind that the condition transfer can kill your pet (that's not a real concern on Soulbeast though).

• 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.
  • Make sure you don't have a target selected before using this skill to disengage! Also disable auto-targeting in the settings menu if you haven't already.

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

• Applying Poison steals some health from the target, damaging them and healing you.

• 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

• Soulbeast - Condition Stancebeast Roamer - a very similar WvW build with a Trapless take on condition Soulbeast roaming.