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: Strike damage

Designed for: Raids and Fractals

Difficulty:

TBD

This build was last updated on April 14, 2022 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 like spirits with a small personal DPS loss.

Skill Bar

Greatsword

Dagger/Axe

Utility

Weapon Variants

• Longbow can be used instead instead of Greatsword for better burst but lower sustained damage.
• Sword or Axe mainhand can both replace Dagger. The DPS difference between the three is minor: Dagger will perform better sustained DPS, Sword will have better burst for phases 60 seconds or shorter, and Axe performs best on extremely short phases.

Pets

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.

Spirits

Spirits are unique Ranger summons that buff 10 players in a large radius around them.

• In raids: As spirits can affect an entire raid squad, they are extremely powerful in raids and almost all of them provide great benefits to a raid comp.
• In fractals: Spirits are weaker in fractals due to only affecting 5 players, but remain strong buffs that should be taken if possible.

• Frost Spirit provides a 5% increase to your squad's power DPS.

• Sun Spirit provides a ~5% increase to your squad's condition DPS.

• Storm Spirit provides vulnerability on enemies on hit, and can be activated for a small amount of CC.

• Stone Spirit provides protection, which again keeps your squadmates from dying and sustains their Rune of Superior Rune of the Scholar bonus.

• Water Spirit provides sustained healing to 10 people in a huge radius. This keeps them from dying and sustains their Rune of Superior Rune of the Scholar bonus.

• Spirit of Nature provides an emergency resurrect that can affect up to 10 people, including yourself.

As your raid squad will usually have a Build:Druid - Boon Support Healer to handle spirits, you normally won't be expected to slot them. Druids are also better suited to take spirits due to Nature's Vengeance. However if you only have one Druid, or you're running a comp with no Druids, you can replace Frost Trap or Signet of the Wild with a spirit to free up your Druid's utility slots and support your team. For instance, it is a squadwide dps increase to have Frost Spirit if you have many power dps classes. Be sure to coordinate with your Druid if doing so.

It's very possible that you will be the only Ranger in a fractal party. In this case you should definitely take Frost Spirit over Frost Trap or Signet of the Wild.

Skill Variants

Utility Skills

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

Specialization Variants

Marksmanship should be used instead of Skirmishing when you're unable to flank the boss constantly - bear in mind that the loss of Hunter's Tactics and probably Spotter mean that you will need to compensate by running higher precision runes or gear.

You should almost always use Marksmanship in fractals as the extra precision from fractal potions means you can run scholar runes and swap in some assassin's pieces for more DPS. Only run Skirmishing if you're very confident in your ability to flank the boss, and you lack AR/potions. You could also run Skirmishing in order to take Spotter in groups that lack warrior banners.

• Stoneform - getting downed (even if it's prevented by Mistlock) will knock you out of Beastmode, so this can prevent that.
• Sharpened Edges is a dps increase for fights with short phases - it will cause your Frost Trap to become slightly de-synced, but is worth it if the phases are short enough that your rotation ends before you get to your 3rd Frost Trap (i.e. shorter than 45 seconds).
• Hidden Barbs is a 0.4% dps increase if you already have a source of Spotter in your group.
• Natural Healing if you are playing the longbow variant.
• Essence of Speed for better personal boon uptime. Always take this if you are not using dagger, as you have no other source of Poison.
• Oppressive Superiority can be taken if your party is unable to benefit from shared stances, for example if you're playing with mostly condition-damage classes.

Equipment

Head
Berserker

Shoulders
Berserker

Chest
Berserker

Hands
Berserker

Legs
Dragon

Feet
Berserker

Backpiece
Dragon

Accessory
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Amulet
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Greatsword
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Dagger
Berserker

Axe
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Equipment Variants

• The Dragon stats pieces are a tiny damage increase, but offer some free vitality. Running full Berserker stats gear is totally fine.
• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Severance on greatsword or longbow in fractals if your burn phase times are super short (i.e. shorter than around 12 seconds).
• 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

The logic behind this rotation is to use your high burst damage skills Maul, Worldly Impact, and Whirling Defense all 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 Charge (soulbeast), Hilt Bash, and Path of Scars to proc the buff.

Opening Burst

Start in Greatsword, merged with your Rock Gazelle.

1. Frost Trap
2. One Wolf Pack and "Sic 'Em!"
3. Maul
4. Hilt Bash
5. Maul
6. Worldly Impact
7. Weapon swap

Loop Rotation

1. One Wolf Pack if available
2. Path of Scars
3. Whirling Defense
4. Double Arc
5. Kick (soulbeast)
6. Charge (soulbeast)
7. Autoattack chain three times
8. Double Arc
9. Path of Scars
10. Weapon swap
11. Maul
12. Autoattack chain twice
13. Maul
14. Charge (soulbeast)
15. Kick (soulbeast)
16. Autoattack chain once
17. "Sic 'Em!"
18. Maul
19. Hilt Bash
20. Maul
21. Worldly Impact
22. Frost Trap
23. Weapon swap
24. Repeat from step 1.

Notes

• Never interrupt your autoattack chain.
• One Wolf Pack's cooldown will desync very slightly over time, try to time it with your Worldly Impact/axe rotation.
• The extra damage from "Sic 'Em!" only applies to the target, so be careful not to use it on the wrong thing.

Video Example for the Greatsword, Rock Gazelle rotation written above

Video Example for the Greatsword, Red Moa rotation

Video Example for the Longbow, Red Moa rotation

CC

• Charge (soulbeast)
• Hilt Bash
• Path of Scars
• Counterattack
• Storm Spirit → Call Lightning (ranger)