User:Masel/Builds/Soulbeast
Sw/A + A/Wh Power Soulbeast[edit]
Criterion | Rating |
---|---|
Burst Damage | 5/5 |
Sustained Damage | 5/5 |
Utility Options | 3/5 |
Survivability | 4/5 |
Difficulty | 2/5 |
Power Soulbeast is a very bursty class, even with a simplified rotation like the one I use. It's an amazing pick for all aspects of PvE and it's surely one of the strongest power builds for general open world and solo gameplay, as it provides itself with good amounts of all essential boons. With the usage of Jade Tech Offensive Overcharge and Jade Tech Defensive Overcharge, it can extend all boons on itself further by using "We Heal As One!", Moa Stance and Essence of Speed.
Link to the Build on the Editor
Playstyle & Skills[edit]
Skill Type | Skills | |||||
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Red Moa (Merged) |
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Sword + Axe |
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Axe + Warhorn |
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Utility |
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Pets[edit]
- Pets are the most important aspect of the class + specialization design. Soulbeasts gain the ability to merge with their pet to gain a few additional abilities, at the cost of having the pet around you.
- Merging with your pet also makes you receive all the benefits that your pet would otherwise receive and merging further increases some of your stats for the time that you’re merged.
- In group content, you’ll want to stay merged with the pet of choice at all times because it increases your dps by a noticeable margin, through the increased stats from both soulbeast and the Beast Mastery specialization. You can use several different pets, but in group content, they should all be from the Ferocious pet category because that increases your Power and Ferocity and gives access to Worldly Impact.
- The default choice for the pet is the Juvenile Red Moa, as it does the highest damage via Frenzied Attack. If you want breakbar damage with a short cooldown and small damage trade-off, use the Juvenile Rock Gazelle.
- In open world, it can make sense to unmerge to use a pet as a decoy or punchbag by gathering aggro from enemies, e.g. whenever staying in melee is too dangerous.
Stances[edit]
- Stances are a very nice skill type that comes with the soulbeast. By default, they only apply to the soulbeast itself, but with Leader of the Pack, they can be shared with nearby allies.
- Since stances are pretty strong, this allows for some neat interactions. The two stances we'll make use of the most are Moa Stance and One Wolf Pack.
- Moa Stance is great for boon self-application, which is why it is the fundament of the open world build.
- One Wolf Pack is great for damage and allows for even higher burst potential when shared with allies.
Skill Usage & Choices[edit]
Generally, you'll want to try and use as many high-damage skills inside the 10 second window of "Sic 'Em!". Outside of it, just use your sword skills and Path of Scars on cooldown.
- Slash, Crippling Thrust + Precision Swipe make up for a very strong chain of auto attacks, that applies both Might to you and Crippled to foes.
- Pounce is a gap-closer that deals high damage. Also gives Vigor and deals more damage against bosses!
- Serpent's Strike is another gap-closer that deals even higher damage than Pounce, but only to a single target. it also includes a short Evade window, so if you can time it right, you can dodge attacks with this.
- Path of Scars is a ranged skill that pulls enemies to you. This can be used to maintain a good uptime on Twice as Vicious.
- Whirling Defense is the strongest damage ability in full aoe in your kit and the only axe skill that is melee. It applies large amount of Vulnerability, and also makes you reflect projectiles while it is active. Since you cannot move while casting this, you need to look at your positioning before you cast it.
- Hammer is a good complementary weapon to Sword/Axe that can increase both uptime on Relic of Fireworks and overall dps if played right. For that, check out the snowcrows power soulbeast build!
Default Skill | Notes |
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"We Heal As One!" | Heals for a large amount and copies shorter version of all boons on you to yourself when merged. Must-have. |
Frost Trap | Good damage skill, also gives you Frost Aura for -10% damage taken when you use Pounce or Serpent's Strike inside it. |
"Sic 'Em!" | Massive increase in damage when merged against a single target. Your strongest damage skills should be used while this is active. |
Signet of the Wild | This is just there for the passive ferocity, do not use it. |
One Wolf Pack | Great skill for burst damage. With Leader of the Pack, this is shared with nearby allies and the hits they do use your stats and count for your damage! |
CC Skills for breakbar damage:
- Path of Scars
- (With Axe + Warhorn) Call of the Wild
- (With Rock Gazelle) Charge
Gear[edit]
Important Stats in Hero Panel (descending in Importance):
- At least 50% Critical Chance: Fury gives 40% due to Vicious Quarry, Hunter's Tactics adds another 10% against enemies with a breakbar and being merged adds another ~7% via Pack Alpha
- Maximize Power
- Maximize Ferocity
- For a budget variant, simply replace all ascended armor pieces of Berserker's with rare/exotic Berserker's.
- The secondary weapon set (Axe/Warhorn) is mostly there for ranged gameplay whenever it is needed. You can also apply additional breakbar damage with Call of the Wild, but that requires you to be in melee range when cast.
- Superior Sigil of Air is cheaper than Superior Sigil of Impact and yields similar results on the golem, but it is only single-target and lower damage against bosses with frequent breakbar phases.
- Ascended gear is always ideal, but exotic gear is fine for everything aside from higher-tier fractals.
Piece | Name |
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Ascended Damage Food | Cilantro Lime Sous-Vide Steak |
Non-Ascended Damage Food | Bowl of Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash Soup |
Ascended Survivability Food | Peppercorn-Crusted Sous-Vide Steak |
Non-Ascended Survivability Food | Oysters with Zesty Sauce |
Damage Utility | Potent Superior Sharpening Stone |
Survivability Utility | Potion Of Karka Toughness |
Relic | Relic of Fireworks |
Ascended Food is always ideal, but never required.
Traits[edit]
- The default specializations for damage are Beast Mastery, Skirmishing and of course Soulbeast.
- We're using all of them in both open world and instanced content, which is very convenient!
Skirmishing | ||||||
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Beast Mastery | ||||||
Soulbeast | ||||||
Skirmishing[edit]
- Skirmishing boosts your damage output by making you deal 10% more damage and increasing critical chance by 10% crit when you flank enemies or agains enemies with a defiance bar (i.e. all bosses). Flanking enemies means standing in at least 45° to the left or right from where the enemy is facing, so the window for it is pretty forgiving. You can also give yourself swiftness and fury when swapping weapons.
- It'll also make Fury grant you 40% crit chance and 250 ferocity instead of just 25% crit chance, so it is essential that you maintain that buff.
Beast Mastery[edit]
- Beast mastery is universally great for soulbeast, because it strongly enhances your pet, and on soulbeast, it therefore enahcnes yourself the same way.
- It increases all your stats aside from Expertise, Healing Power and Concentration, further boosts your damage while on high health, makes you move 30% faster and further reduces the cooldowns on axe skills by 20%. All of this is great, never change these traits. For the master trait line, you can freely choose though, since none of those really enhance your damage. I usually go with Natural Healing since it makes your pet (or you when merged) more resilient.
Soulbeast[edit]
- With those traits, soulbeast will make you deal increased strike damage while you have fury (you should know by now how essential keeping fury up is).
- Essence of Speed extends all other boons whenever you receive Quickness. This is incredibly powerful, because it drastically enhances the uptime on all boons on you, making soulbeast a very good choice in unoptimized groups where boon uptime isn't guaranteed.
- Finally, Twice as Vicious makes you deal 10% increased damage after applying Control effects and Oppressive Superiority increases your damage against enemies with lower share of health than you by 10%.
- Against bosses with shorter burst phases, it can be worth it to run Leader of the Pack instead of Oppressive Superiority
DPS Rotation Showcase[edit]
You can find my most recent rotation showcase here.
Open World Build[edit]
You can find my most recent open world build showcase here.
For OW, it can make sense to make a build more forgiving, so that you can sustain on your own.
- The first major step to increase survivability is to use Moa Stance instead of Frost Trap. Moa Stance is a massive boost to survivability through the Protection it grants. It makes all boons you grant 66% longer. It also affects its own boons, making them last longer than stated in the tooltip.
- Use Quickening Zephyr instead Signet of the Wild.The application of quickness through this extends all boons aside from quickness itself, and is further amplified by the extra boon duration from Moa Stance.
- Use Leader of the Pack instead of Oppressive Superiority to increase the duration of Moa Stance.
- Use "We Heal As One!" on cooldown; when merged, this will apply copies of your own boons to you and is also amplified by Moa Stance.
- Through all the above and Essence of Speed, you will be able to extend boons supplied by Jade Tech Offensive Overcharge and Jade Tech Defensive Overcharge for up to one minute after entering combat. That is a massive boost to both damage and survivability.
- You can use Stone Spirit for area Aegis and to maintain Protection without jade protocols.
- Use a different pet; my favourite pet is the Smokescale. This has a CC skill built-in in the form of Takedown, a fun evade skill with Smoke Assault that grants Might and keeps Worldly Impact. If you need something more resilient, use the Brown Bear or Jacaranda.
Skill Choice | Notes |
---|---|
"We Heal As One!" | Heals for a large amount and copies shorter version of all boons on you to yourself when merged. Must-have. |
Moa Stance | The fundament for the open world build through large boon application, as explained above. |
Quickening Zephyr | Quickness application to trigger Essence of Speed as well as another stun-break. Try to pair this with Moa Stance to make the quickness last longer. |
"Sic 'Em!" | Massive increase in damage when merged against a single target. You can use Stone Spirit for area Aegis and to maintain Protection without jade protocols. |
"Strength of the Pack!" | Strong source of Stability and Might. This is not required, you can also use One Wolf Pack for higher damage. |
- If those changes are not comfortable enough for you, you can use the survivability food and utlity item listed above for another -10% damage taken and 150 Toughness!