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 March 05, 2023 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A Condition damage based Soulbeast duelist build for PvP.

Skill Bar

Shortbow

Axe/Dagger

Utility

Skill Variants

Utility

• Flame Trap - extra damage, adds a new condition (plus a combo field) and more trap synergy to the build on a very low CD.

• Viper's Nest - offers slightly worse than Flame Trap but has Predator's Cunning synergy.

• Signet of Renewal - passive healing, mass cleanse and stun break on active.

• Griffon Stance - could come in clutch when you're out of dodges and need to evade an enemy burst.

• Lightning Reflexes - low CD stun break, evasion and Immob removal.

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, trades some flexibility for improved bow skills and a bit of extra condition duration.

Specialization Variants

Nature Magic over Skirmishing: most tanky option.

Equipment

Shortbow

Sigil

Sigil

Axe

Dagger

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Rune

• Rune of Orr - good stats and helps you survive condition pressure. Worth considering if you're only playing with 1 utility trap.

Usage

Elite specialization basics

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

• 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, Quick Shot if you need sustain (evade attacks), or Concussion Shot if you want more CC.
  • On Axe/Dagger the prime considerations are Winter's Bite and Stalker's Strike. Both of these offer a mix of damage and survivability. In terms of raw damage Splitblade could be better than Stalker's Strike when SS wouldn't inflict the extra Poison stacks.

• 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 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".

• Roam between capture points with Swoop (soulbeast) and Crippling Leap (soulbeast).
• If damage is starting to overwhelm you and you are out of CDs, just run away with one of your many mobility skills such as Swoop (soulbeast) and wait a little before re-engaging. Make sure you don't have an enemy target selected and autotargeting is turned off in the options!

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

• Wolf's Unflinching Fortitude is perhaps the most powerful defensive skill in the build. It breaks stuns, grants immunity to direct damage and even cleanses some conditions.

• 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.