Soulbeast - Condition Trapper SB Roamer
The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great
Focused on: Condition damage and Mobility
Designed for: WvW Roaming
Difficulty:
Easy
This build was last updated on July 08, 2024 and is up to date for the June 25, 2024 patch.
Overview
A well-rounded condi 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.
Uses evasion and mobility to survive pressure while waiting for an opening to show where it can unleash its CC and condition burst.
Skill Bar
![Hawk](/wiki/images/thumb/0/0f/Hawk.webp/88px-Hawk.webp.png)
![Alpine Wolf](/wiki/images/thumb/5/5f/Alpine_Wolf.webp/88px-Alpine_Wolf.webp.png)
Axe/Dagger
Shortbow
Utility
Skill Variants
Utility
Viable choices for the 3rd utility slot:
- - if you're running a more defensive version of the build with this is an excellent short CD stun break with useful boons and great cleansing.
- - adds a new condition to the build, has great damage and even shorter CD than Viper's Nest.
- - slightly longer CD than Flame Trap and worse condition diversity, but it offers synergy for extra healing.
- - on-demand evasion and improved endurance regen/superspeed on low CD is never bad.
- - constant passive healing and a mass cleanse when used.
- - better uptime on important defensive boons, which also translates to more healing (potentially even more than what the signet provides).
Pets
Siamoth over
Alpine Wolf - they both have 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.
Template Code
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Specializations
Variants
- is worth considering when you're running at least 2 stances or you're roaming in a group.
Equipment
Head
Trailblazer
Trailblazer
Shoulders
Trailblazer
Trailblazer
Chest
Trailblazer
Trailblazer
Hands
Trailblazer
Trailblazer
Legs
Trailblazer
Trailblazer
Feet
Trailblazer
Trailblazer
Backpiece
Trailblazer
Trailblazer
Accessory
Apothecary
Apothecary
Accessory
Apothecary
Apothecary
Amulet
Apothecary
Apothecary
Ring
Apothecary
Apothecary
Ring
Apothecary
Apothecary
Axe
Trailblazer
Trailblazer
Dagger
Trailblazer
Trailblazer
Sigil
Sigil
Shortbow
Trailblazer
Trailblazer
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6
x6
Infusion
x18
x18
Relic
Equipment Variants
Stats
- A full set of
Celestial gear is an equally viable option. Your condition burst becomes weaker but the extra Power on Axe can compensate for it to a degree. Toughness goes down but you gain slightly higher healing and much better uptime on defensive boons.
Relics
- - passive healing increase for a more tanky build.
- - improves your burst damage and condition variety.
- - adds a strong offensive proc whenever you use an elite skill. Enemies under the eye get hit every second, so the value of this relic goes up significantly if you can root them right under it with .
Vigor uptime which also means higher
Protection uptime and healing from the trait .
- defensive option that could give you permanent
- - adds a new condition to the build with a high uptime, making it harder for enemies to cleanse your more important conditions while providing a small damage boost.
Runes
- - a bit more defensive option that retains the most important stats of Trapper, and you don't need to craft this. Quite cheap too.
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
- Budget version:
and synergy.
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 which has a 10s CD.
- Pet related traits and skills such as 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
- Usually you should merge with your pet whenever it comes off CD for the
Vigor, cleansing and
Protection from . Don't idle in Beastmode too long, use whatever Beast ability isn't on CD and then exit.
- With this trait you should usually cycle through both pet's Beastmode skills before unmerging.
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 or you could swap to Wolf for the stunbreak even if you're on Hawk.
Mobility
- Maintain permanent
Swiftness with and .
- Turn around before using Quick Shot in order to move "forward".
- Use and 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 as much as you can between bursts, ideally from behind. Many short bow skills have increased effectiveness when striking from behind or the sides.
- 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 on axe.
- is yet another cone attack similar to , so try to use it in melee range.
Weakness even helps with mitigating incoming damage.
- This is best used in 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.
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
- If you're using for the damage and not the evasion, you should first make sure your target is crippled. has the benefit of allowing you to use as the first skill after swapping weapons for synergy, while still getting the most damage out of it.
- Hawk's Beastmode F3 skill is one of the best skills when it comes to condition variety and should be used on CD to pressure enemies.
Sustain
- Dodging removs a damaging and a non-damaging condition.
- When that's no longer enough there's also and while (if taken) serves as the panic button.
- and both remove certain non-damaging conditions. Consider using them before other sources of cleansing in order to maximize the amount of conditions removed and to increase the chance of getting rid of damaging ones.
- 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).
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
- If damage is starting to overwhelm you and you are out of CDs, just run away with
- 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.
and wait a little before reengaging.
- Dodging applies
Protection, which also heals thanks to the trait .
- Applying
Poison steals some health from the target, damaging them and healing you.
Protection and as has no cast time, this can be used even while CC'd in order to survive enemy burst.
grants
Related Builds
- Soulbeast - Poisonbeast - sPvP version of the build.
- Soulbeast - Condition Stancebeast Roamer - a very similar WvW build with a Trapless take on condition Soulbeast roaming.
Ratings
![5 stars](/wiki/images/d/dd/5-star.png)
A very strong roaming wvw build. Has the ability to sustain, kite, and kill. When played by a well experienced player, it's god tier.
![5 stars](/wiki/images/d/dd/5-star.png)
Surprised how well this still holds up with all the cele specs around. Tons of evasion, great flexibility, good defensive boons, excellent healing. Condition bursts can be a problem while the heal is on CD, but just play defensively and use the sigils/stance and you'll manage. Damage's very good in 1v1s, the build's capable of some real scary bursts. Mobility's as good as it gets without teleports. There's even stealth access which is the strongest mechanic in WvW roaming. That said, some cele specs with Antitoxin runes might counter it so it isn't perfect.
![5 stars](/wiki/images/d/dd/5-star.png)
This the dirties roaming ranger build, and quite possible in the top 5 best roaming builds in the game. If you just go through your defensive rotation, you can survive in 1vX and get kills in the process. You have excellent protection uptime, disengages, stunbreaks, tons of i-frames, stealth and superspeed, and consistent condi pressure. You can gtfo whenever you want, stay for as long as you want then leave, condi burst anyone u want. In my opinion this is the best roaming build on the ranger by far. I played a d/d version without Trapper runes for a while, but this is on another level.
Comments
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