Sustainable Soulbeast [pvp build]

A sustainable soulbeast build for pvp - focused on health regen, moderate group support and CC's. I've reached top 80 with it and I'm oscillating between Legendary and Plat3.Don't expect anything formidable. Soulbeast is in a bad spot in pvp right now, spellbreakers / scourges / firebrands are dominating the scene and i really suggest you to run druid (which in my opinion is better).Before clicking the link, i want to warn you: don't even try to fight a spellbreaker with this build. There is no way you can kill one, except really bad ones. Also condi mesmers can eat you alive if they interrupts your cleanses. Scourges are killable if you know how to manage your cooldowns. I've trained hard in unranked before getting to ranked queues so don't expect an autowin-hardcarry build like warriors or necros these days. If you want to play ranger and win, play druid basically. I'm just playing soulbeast for fun (and it's not even that fun, so clunky), but i'm trying to make it work.

LINK: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNBjYD7kgXohXslFwhFglXsMJY552f7xtJA84mAOVuLXmrkzlG-jpxHQB+Y/hBcBAAwBBQelBC4DAQZHBAABUILD VARIATIONS: Marauder/paladin amulet and Leadership runes > more damage/less sustain.I chose Mender's amulet so i can get the maximum healing from Rugged Growth and regeneration. Water runes passively clears conditions, grant boon duration and heal in aoe when using your healing skill. Considering the base heal of Bear stance, which is kinda low, this is great.

USAGE

• Use your warhorn #5 to buff yourself, your pet and your allies. Remember to save this skill in outnumbered situations to blast your smokefield if needed;
• Warhorn 5 > warhorn 4 > swap to bow > Longbow 2 and let your smokescale do the smoke assault > Enter beastmode > Smoke assault = almost 25 vuln stack on enemy, 25 might stacks on you. Play around it;
• Spiritual reprieve and Photosynthesize can refull your hp, but both skills are susceptible to interrupts, so stealth or apply stab to yourself if you don't want to be interrupted;
• One Wolf Pack is strong especially in teamfights or when you are not in beastmode so your pet can get the buff. Don't waste this skill while you are alone and in beastmode;
• One Wolf Pack + Jaracanda Call Lightning (the pet skill, not the beastmode skill) can grant a lot of AoE cleave;
• Your evades are your best defense, care when you use them (sword 2,3,smoke assault in beastmode, lightning reflexes);
• Longbow 4 + jaracanda F2 = Ancient seeds. Good especially against necros to pull them out of point;
• Try to manage your condi cleanses, you don't have much of them;
• Bear stance heal your allies (water runes) and clear conditions from them, immobilizing/slowing enemies in aoe aswell;
• Bear stance + Spiritual reprieve grants a lot of healing to your allies, especially when they are against heavy condi pressure;
• A lot of your passive sustain comes from Protection + regen, be careful if these boons get stripped.

That's it. Sure, nothing special. But let's be honest, we will get a balance patch. Probably soulbeast will get some bug fixes/buffs. I think this is the best supportive build we can get for a 5ppl team, and it can only be improved. And i can't see nerfs incoming to this build honestly. Most rangers are playing #BugGazzelle but that pet will be fixed. Well, try this build if you want and let me know what do you think :)

I also played around with mender Soulbeast, came with some similar ideas to what you have made, but I tried to balance Sustainability with offence.I went with : http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNBjYD7kgXoWQsjXwhXgrFsMJYNBgH3EIv3+bPuPBha1HrEpPH-jZxHABK/EAkvMw3XAAx3fAgDCAA

BM with is giving me extra stats while is beastmode and + 150 ferocity. With smokescalre beast mode it's almost I'm with marauder amulet.Also Natural healing for extra sustain while in beastmode. and ofc all the other goodies of BM(shouts, ZS+WK synergy, pet dmg, etc..)Moa stance+ leadership = 100% boon duration, it will cover all the boons you need, very nice nice combos for ridiculous up time for important boons).

Thanks for the build I want to try it! I'm a pvp noob - as for druid, what would you recommend right now?

I kinda like where this is going, but I wonder if menders is worth it? Sustain looks pretty good even without the extra healing power. I'm thinking I might try this but with axe instead of warhorn and maybe Marauders?

@ LughLongArmI was using something like that at the beginning. But i don't think that build can do more damage than mine. You are not using Fresh reinforcements so basically you can't build 25 might stacks. Also you are not running Signet of Stone which makes you kinda vulnerable against heavy pressure. Nature Magic it's also an important traitline because you get a lot of boon duration, fast rezzes, and sustain form horn regen and protection. Beastmastery,on the other hand, offers you nothing that can help you surviving more, and the few bonus stats gained are not worth it.

@ Dorian TealI think metabattle offers you a good build to start with. Sometimes i switch to longbow/staff and traveler runes or sword-warhorn/longbow, depending on the situation.

@ SpartyrDon't drop warhorn or you will lose the might stacking potential. Also warhorn 5 helps you to mantain fury uptime, which is good since mender amulet grants only 30% crit chance. And yes, you can go marauder but keep in mind, you will lose a lot of sustain.

@kappa.2036 Hi,

Don't get me wrong, I like it that we both got our own thing going, but just to make my case for BM.ZS- extra condi removal, mobility and quicknessNatural healing - Passive heal while in beastmode, scales with all the bonuses.RT+shouts, does everything your traited horn does, giving me the option for another source of stability(How all of the above doesn't help with my survivability?)

Regarding boon duration, with leadership rune and moa stance i got much better boon duration than yours, combine with protect me, moa +champion's defense, my protection+ regen uptime is as high as yours if not higher.

Regarding might stacking, your build is also not optimal for this propose, no rampage as one , no we heal as one etc.. You basically get might might only from smokescale smoke assault and other players buffs(sword AA will give ya another 3 might). And once you achieve a big might stack, a scourge/theif/mesmer/spellbreaker, will rip it out of you in 2 sec. This is also a weakness of your traited horn and protective ward. Long CD, one time buffs, while this meta is about re -application of boons. My build got at least double means to get stability/protection/regen/ etc..

Regarding offensiveness, with the unblockbale trait , access to quickness and the extra offensive stats, my LB burst is much much much delayer than yours, even when you have might stacking on. Also my pets hit much harder.

Regarding the lack of SoS, I don't like it I rarely use it on any of my builds. it will not even save you in many situations, especially not in the scourge meta.

You got the fast rez going on, that's a nice tool, but I got another stability source to not get my revive interrupted.

@Spartyr.6795

Mender is good because combined with healing pet and rugged growth, it's giving you the option to play with bear stance. Without mender you will feel that bear stacne is just not giving you enough heal and you will want to use it even when you don't have condis on you. If you dont want mender, go will probably end up with TU and the other survival utilities for the condi clear, but tha's another build all together.

Mender SB is not bad, but as for ranked PvP in Plat/Legend, Druid is still a better pick. With the only interesting trait you can make longbow work, which is neat. But Druid atm can sustain most Spellbreakers ON A NODE which is heavily needed in this wannabe Warrior Meta. Nothing is more satisfying than making the Warrior who always pushes far, loosing the match since he can't do anything when the node is mine.

They will add a new amulet like Mender with less HP, but 1k precision. This one might be interesting for SB.

@ LughLongArmMoa stance and protect me helps you to sustain yourself, yes, but for example in my build those skills are not needed. I have already permanent swiftness-might-fury-protection in combat, so what i am supposed to do with those skills? If a thief +1 you, there is no way you can survive, especially if you get immobilized. Both lightning refllexes and signet of stone are really useful in those moments, while moa stance and protect me are just near to useless. As for the might stacking, running Nature Magic means every time i get might, the pet also gains might. If i swap to longbow, for example, i gain 4 might stacks from sigil of Battle but my pet ALSO get those boons. With warhorn/sigils and running in and out from your beastmode you can mantain 10-25 stacks of might all the time without problems. The Only method you have to stack 25 might is using Strenght of the Pack, something that basically i don't need since i can double my stability duration entering in beastmode. If my boons get stripped, i can enter in beastmode and gain the boons my pet had. I'm not saying your build is bad, i'm glad that you are sharing your opinions, so keep going! And mostly let's see if Anet decide to improve this class in the next balance patch :)

@ beatthedownYou are 100% right, as i already mentioned in the topic, druid still remains the best choice for now, though you can make soulbeast work in some matchups.