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:

Easy

This build was last updated on September 07, 2023 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

Sword/Axe

Hammer

Utility

Weapon Variants

Offhand Axe is the only irreplaceable weapon.

• Mainhand Sword Can be replaced with an Axe for slightly higher burst and a bit of ranged flexibility, but lower overall damage.
• 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

Power Soulbeast can be played merged with either of the listed pets, as they are both of the Ferocious Archetype and provide access to Worldly Impact.

• Rock Gazelle provides more CC in the form of its F2 skill Charge (soulbeast).
• Red Moa is higher dps by about 0.8k with its F2 skill Frenzied Attack (soulbeast). Its F1 skill Harmonic Cry (soulbeast) is also a moderate 5man heal. It has a slightly different rotation.

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.

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Specializations

• Hidden Barbs is a small dps increase, so could be replaced with Spotter if your group needs extra Fury.

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

Sword
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

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

You can skip the longbow precast and start on Sword/Axe (if you want a ranged option then Axe/Warhorn will do more damage than Longbow). The full rotation is already very simple and you 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.

Hammer Rotations

Video example (with sword)

Video example (with axe)

"Longbow" Rotation

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

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

• Charge (soulbeast)
• Path of Scars
• Call of the Wild