Longbow Soul Beasts: Marksmanship or Beast Mastery?

I see a lot of Soul Beasts running with wilderness survival which makes sense, but everyone seems torn with their third build branch between Beastmastery or Marksmanship (with the exception of the Soul Beasts using nature magic)I'm trying to decide which one is right for me.

What advantages and disadvantages does each of these have over the other?What kind of play style does each choice reward most?

I realize that depending on which traits you pick in each branch will totally change everything so get as broad or nitty gritty as you like.

What type of content are you doing? Wvw zerging, wvw roaming, spvp, or open world pve? I think I'd only go MM over BM for soulbeast longbow if I was in situations where I really wanted the piercing: camping longbow, firing into crowds of targets with little thought of my own defense. So WvW zerging or open world zerg pve. But in that case I think I'd drop WS and take both MM and BM.

I agree with what @Undertow.2389 said. MM works well if you want to take advantage of piercing (or want to run full glass sniper with BM/MM/SB), but beyond that I'd recommend BM, especially if running GS and/or shouts. It is an extremely good traitline for Soulbeast. The minors synergize fantastically with SB, and my second-favorite Ranger trait (behind Quickdraw), Zephyr's Speed, is absolutely invaluable for bursting, pursuing, kiting, disengaging, and executing clutch skills, and is even juicier when combined with WK in WS. MM seems to work pretty well for core builds, but IMO it doesn't bring enough to the table to justify choosing over BM when playing Soulbeast. For me, Beastmastery lends to a very fluid and well-rounded gameplay, and synergizes wonderfully with WS due to Wilderness Knowledge's and Zephyr's Speed's interaction.

Thank you, this helps a lot

I run both in pvp and wvw, take bear stance for heal and condi remove and bust some...Weak against condi mirage and radiant hammer core guard.You'll wreck everything else once you get a hang of the kiting/mobility

@Undertow.2389 said:What type of content are you doing? Wvw zerging, wvw roaming, spvp, or open world pve? I think I'd only go MM over BM for soulbeast longbow if I was in situations where I really wanted the piercing: camping longbow, firing into crowds of targets with little thought of my own defense. So WvW zerging or open world zerg pve. But in that case I think I'd drop WS and take both MM and BM.

That's my philosophy, though I stuck horribly at dueling, so if my enemy isn't dead at long range, WS won't help me much if they get up in my jammy. Realistically though, if I'm roaming on my Ranger it's to do one of two things:1- complete dailies solo2- run alongside some other players to harass other groups or zergs

In both instances I'm better of being able to fire my LB more often, have the arrows pierce (very helpful in taking out camp NPCs) and the added damage for firing at max range is always good.

I know most roamers use WS, but I've tried it and it doesn't work for me. I suspect this is a skill cap issue, as I've taken on some seemingly unkillable roamer Rangers in the past, so maybe MM/BS/SB is the build for mediocre players? /shrug

You should really try both. In a game mode like WvW what works on 'paper' means nothing, as the person behind the keyboard is the deciding factor.

i honestly think most SB who take marksman is for the stoneform trait....they need the extra safety net if they get targetedI personally take skirm BM SB for maximum stats and rely on positioning and situational awareness to GTFO if i need to.

@Maven.1690 said:i honestly think most SB who take marksman is for the stoneform trait....they need the extra safety net if they get targetedI personally take skirm BM SB for maximum stats and rely on positioning and situational awareness to GTFO if i need to.

isnt the trait bugged and only provides 3 secs instead the 5?

@anduriell.6280 said:

@Maven.1690 said:i honestly think most SB who take marksman is for the stoneform trait....they need the extra safety net if they get targetedI personally take skirm BM SB for maximum stats and rely on positioning and situational awareness to GTFO if i need to.

It isn't bugged, it's tooltip hasn't been updated since the change to invlun type utilities. Utility stone signet is 3s too. Other classes have such inconsistencies as well.

@Turkeyspit.3965 said:I know most roamers use WS, but I've tried it and it doesn't work for me. I suspect this is a skill cap issue, as I've taken on some seemingly unkillable roamer Rangers in the past, so maybe MM/BS/SB is the build for mediocre players? /shrug

WS's protection on dodge with natural vigor minor (25% endurance regen), rugged growth (heal while protection is up), synergy with Soul Beast's Second Skin just gives everything you'd want from a defensive trait line. I've encountered some MM/BM soulbeasts that were just too easy to kill. Not having a follow up after longbow burst is one thing, but they didn't have any defenses aside from the passive signet and next to no protection uptime.

YOLO Burstbow or defensive longbow, those are the choices. MM Yolo build is all offense with very little defense outside of utilities and stone form trait. It can be a quick kill against most professions because it bursts very high BUT if they can sustain you're burst you need to run and evade until you can burst again. high skill floor burst build. i prefer this in pvp where i can hit hard and fast then evade.

WS makes you tankier, it helps you survive all of the condi spam and ups overall survivability. I prefer WS for wvw roaming since you never know what you might run into and it gives you more tools in your toolbag. also a high skill floor build since your weapon skills and utilities can be used offensively and defensively.