Dravvi's Minstrel Boon Soulbeast Guide - Zerg Play Build

[Charall.4710]

Hey guys, so because people have this crazy notion that soulbeast is totally useless for zergs. I decided I would come in here to shake things up a little and go over some stuff, I have extensive experience on Condi, Power, Healing, and Boon ranger builds and wanted to share a few things with you guys! So strap yourselves in, put aside your biases! And get ready! 

Here. We. Go. *Flicks hand joker style*

Ranger/Soulbeast is often thought of as a roaming class and though that is true, it's other aspects are overlooked significantly so today we're gonna go over a build I run occasionally to show you how it can fit into the current meta, it's strengths, weaknesses, and how a single soulbeast in your group can turn the tide of an entire battle in WvW.


The Build

Alright so for this one it's pretty straight forwards but let's get into it! 

Trait Lines: Beastmastery/Nature Magic/Soulbeast

Specific Traits - Beastmastery: Resounding Timbre>Nature Healing>Beastly Warden

Specific Traits - Nature Magic: Allies' Aid>Windborne Notes>Invigorating Bond

Specific Traits - Soulbeast: Live Feast>Second Skin>Leader of the Pack

Skills: Bear Stance>Moa Stance>Dolyak Stance>Protect Me!(optional), One Wolf Pack.

Gear

Axe/Warhorn/Greatsword (Longbow optional), Pretty much Full Minstrel, Runes of the Monk (From Ascalonian Catacombs),  Superior Sigil of Transference, Superior Sigil of Concentration, with all concentration infusions in every slot.

Food/utility

Bowl of Fruit Salad with Mint Garnish: 10% outgoing healing, 100 healing power, 70 concentration, 20% magic find.
Bountiful Maintenance Oil: Gain 0.6% Healing to Other Allies for Every 100 Healing Power, Gain 0.8% Increased Healing to Other Allies for Every 100 Concentration.

Pets!
It is in my personal opinion that you cannot ever go wrong here with using the Brown Bear and Fern Hound for this specific build, we'll go over all the specifics about that in a moment.

How it All Works Together! The part yall been waiting for!

So as yall may very well know! When ranger got soulbeast, we became a DPS power house but the most overlooked aspect of the soulbeast release had to be it's party utility with Leader of the Pack.

Major Traits (Party Utility):

Leader of the Pack (Soulbeast): Stance skills gain increased duration on you and grant their effects to nearby allies for a reduced duration - Number of Allied Targets 5, Personal Duration 150%, Allied Duration 50%, Radius 360. This right here Dramatically Effects how this build is played, no longer are you using stances only for yourself. You are applying boons and stance buffs to allies. Increasing the duration of boons from your warhorn and pet F3 skill, breaking stuns, cleansing condies, and granting extra damage to allies.

Allies' Aid (Nature Magic): Cast "Search and Rescue!" when you begin reviving an ally, Regen 15 1/2 sec, 4823 Heal, Number of Allied Targets 5, Radius 360. Pressing F5 to leave beast mode and then res allies is stupidly fast here but also grants regen to nearby players, definitely not a HUGE thing but it can help quickly save a party member! However, this coupled with the next trait I will mention can be BIG!

Resounding Timbre (Beastmastery): Commands apply additional boons around you and gain reduced recharge, Regen 19 1/2 sec (6,029 Heal), Swiftness 19 1/2 sec (33% Movement Speed), Boon Radius 600, Recharge Reduced 20%. Combine this with Allies' Aid (Nature Magic) and this becomes a powerful tool to raise people on a reduced cooldown that can quickly get players up off the ground and back into the zerg in seconds. Search and Rescue by default is a 35s cooldown, traiting this brings it to 28s and increases the duration of regen to 35 seconds. Add to that Protect Me! and you get an additional stunbreak over Dolyak Stance, Regen, Swiftness, a Barrier, and Protection!

Windborne Notes (Nature Magic): Warhorn skills gain reduced recharge and grant regeneration around their target. Recover health when you gain regeneration. Healing 244, regen 11 3/4s (3618 Heal), Number of Allied Targets 5, Reduced Recharge 20%, Radius 900. Yet again another huge trait, it seems like something small but when you look at Warhorn 5 coupled with Moa Stance, you get a huge amount of boon uptime. I have seen this give kitten near Perma Fury/Might/Swiftness/Regen just from those two abilities alone on a 24s cooldown. Definitely nothing to ignore.

Invigorating Bond (Nature Magic): Beast abilities heal allies around the caster, Healing (3738), Radius 300. This one is actually HUGE!!! Like really big when combined with Brown Bear, let me explain to you why this is probably the single most broken trait in this entire build.. You AND allies not only get that 3738 heal when activating Spiritual Reprieve, but you also get an additional 6755 heal on top of that, 5 3/4 seconds of resistance which causes nondamaging conditions to be ineffective like.. slow, immob, cripple, and chill, personal quickness for 5 3/4s with some of the traits I will mention in a moment, personal fury for 11 3/4s, taunt enemies for 2 seconds, and it effects 5 enemies as well! All on a 40s cooldown, how is that not busted?! Go on, tell me!!! If you are applying boons, you also get the benefit of the monk runes to deal EVEN MORE HEALING to allies.


Major Traits (Player Only):

Live Feast (Soulbeast): Using a Beast ability grants you offensive boons, Fury 11 3/4 sec (+20% Critical Chance; +15% Damage), Quickness 5 3/4s (Skills and actions are 50% Faster). Increased personal crit chance, increased personal damage, and increased personal skill/action speed on using your F3 in Beast Mode. Really good damage increase for yourself, bringing this build more in line with other meta zerg builds.

Second Skin (Soulbeast): Conditions inflect less damage to you while you have protection, Damage Reduced 33%. If you are in a squad with.. well any class that grants you protection, this is a huge boost against the current condi meta, it basically is just self sustain but hey every little bit helps!

Natural Healing (Beastmastery): Your pet recovers health each inerval, Healing 462, Interval 3 sec. When in Beast Mode, this applies to you! giving you just a little bit more passive sustain which is perfect for fights with heavy damage.

Beastly Warden (Beastmastery): Beast abilities taunt nearby foes, Taunt 2s (Involuntarily attack foes), Number of Targets 5, Radius 240. When combined with all the other traits that are boosting your F3 skills abilities, this is a free CC while healing others, increasing your personal damage,  and granting resistance to allies. How can you really say no to this?

Minor Traits (Quickfire):

Pack Alpha (Beastmastery): Your pet's attibutes are improved and pet skills gain recharge reduction, Improved attibutes are power, condition damage, precision, toughness, and vitality. Attribute Increase 150, Soulbeast Attibute Increase 150, Pet Skill Recharge 20%

Loud Whistle (Beastmastery): While your health is above the threshold, your pet deals increased strike damage. Your pet swap gains recharge reduction. Damage Increase 10%, Health Threshold 90%, Recharge Reduced 20%.

Pet's Prowess (Beastmastery): Your pet moves faster and deals more damage on critical hits. Ferocity Increase +300, Soulbeast Ferocity Increase +300, Movement Speed Increase 30%.

Rejuvenation (Nature Magic): Gain regeneration when struck below the health threshold. Health Threshold 50%, Regen (9 3/4sec) 3015 Heal.

Fortifying Bond (Nature Magic): When you gain a boon, it is share with your pet. Aegis (9 3/4sec) Block the next incoming attack, Alacrity (5 3/4sec) 25% Skill Recharge Rate, Fury (9 3/4sec) +20% Crit Chance; +15% Damage, Might (19 1/2sec) +30 Power; +30 Condition Damage, Protection (5 3/4s) -33% Incoming Damage; -33% Incoming Condition Damage, Quickness (4 3/4s) Skills and actions are 50% faster, Regen (11 3/4s) 3618 Heal, Resistance (4s) Nondamaging conditions currently on you are ineffective, Resolution (9 3/4s) Incoming condition damage decreased by 33%, Swftiness (11 3/4s) +33% Movement Speed, Stability (9 3/4s) Cannont be knocked down, pushed back, pulled, launched, stunned, dazed, floated, sunk, feared, or taunted, Vigor (5 3/4s) +50% Endurance Regeneration.

Lingering Magic (Nature Magic): You and your pet gain increased concentration, Concentration +240.

Elevated Bond (Soulbeast): Gain access to Stances. Survival in the desert has enhanced your connection to your pet, granting you the ability to meld with them by entering beastmode. You cannot swap pets in combat. Traits that affect your pet may effect you differently while in beastmode.

Furious Strength (Soulbeast): You deal increased strike damage while you have fury. Damage Increase 15%.

Twice as Vicious (Soulbeast): Disabling a foe increases your damage and condition damage for a short duration, Twice as Vicious (10s) +10% Damage, +10% Condition Damage.


Full Build Link:
Dravvi's Boon Beast Build for WvW Zergs

If you guys have any comments feel free to post, keep them constructive and concise! But in my opinion, this build is perfect for zerg fights at the top level. Fight guilds, Tier 1, ect. Useful in all scenarios.
  

 

[Gotejjeken.1267]

I do appreciate how this is formatted like one of those 2-week weight loss sales pitches 😂

 

Anyway, it is a sad day when we have to mold our DPS spec into the group support when we have untamed and druid that would naturally fit that role better, but are hampered by the pet dying quickly.  

As in, the most effective traits here are actually from core lines (BM, NM); Soulbeast only contributes pet not dying and stance share, which help--but not in the support department that say OG Druid could provide.  

I mean, just compare the Druid traitline to Soulbeast and it becomes even sadder.  

[Charall.4710]

7 minutes ago, Gotejjeken.1267 said:

I do appreciate how this is formatted like one of those 2-week weight loss sales pitches 😂

XD glad you liked it.

[DanAlcedo.3281]

Literally nobody thinks Soulbeast is useless in zergs these days except some people who still think it's 2017.

Their not S Tier or even A Tier but provide something nobody else can. 

Longbow 5. 

It doesn't require LoS. So good luck on using siege behind walls when you have 2 competent SBs. 

Add Stance Share. 

 

The only problems holding Soulbeast back are:

• No Good none projectile weapon. 
• Rangers having on average a massive skill problem. You won't find a good ranger that easily. 
• You can't stack them. 

Other then that, 1 or 2 are always welcome in my squad. 

 

[Dagger.2035]

8 hours ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

Other then that, 1 or 2 are always welcome in my squad. 

Another issue is that there’s usually more than 1 or 2 rangers. It seems like it is one of the most popular pug professions.

[DanAlcedo.3281]

1 hour ago, Dagger.2035 said:

Another issue is that there’s usually more than 1 or 2 rangers. It seems like it is one of the most popular pug professions.

Kinda. Soulbeast is very much OP as a roamer, so you will always have a good amount on the map. 

And these like to join when big fights are going on. 

Add base rangers into the mix that just installed the game, who check out Wvw and the number of rangers on the map can get quite big. 

For a Gw2 player, ranger in general is more of a niche pick. Especially in Wvw. 

But the archer archetype is way more popular in other mmos. 

I guess that's why the play rate of ranger is higher then its should be in GW2. 

[Hotride.2187]

10 hours ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

• Rangers having on average a massive skill problem. You won't find a good ranger that easily. 

Actually common at duel spot, but yeah those dont join zergs.

On topic, I've not read the wall of text. You need a tl;dr to tell me why I should play this build instead of my fb (aside from playing support guard making me want to vomit at this point). I'm sure there is 0 reason for playing the build instead of heal scrapper (thanks that 1 dev that plays engi in wvw).

Edited May 4, 2022 by Hotride.2187

[DanAlcedo.3281]

17 minutes ago, Hotride.2187 said:

Actually common at duel spot, but yeah those dont join zergs.

On topic, I've not read the wall of text. You need a tl;dr to tell me why I should play this build instead of my fb (aside from playing support guard making me want to vomit at this point). I'm sure there is 0 reason for playing the build instead of heal scrapper (thanks that 1 dev that plays engi in wvw).

You quoted the wrong guy. 

[Hotride.2187]

8 minutes ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

You quoted the wrong guy. 

2nd paragraph was addressing the thread.

[DanAlcedo.3281]

Just now, Hotride.2187 said:

2nd paragraph was addressing the thread.

My bad. 😁

[subversiontwo.7501]

I think this is a good thread to reiterate this point:

The issue with Rangers in large-scale content has little to do with class or build. It has to do with "how to use" the stuff it has. It has to do with composition and that the commander of a squad will generally not micromanage his squad to that degree and build that kind of party for you. While players in this game, generally, has lost the capacity to build their own parties.

• The Druid has healing and additional things to contribute
• The Soulbeast has stability and additional things to contribute
• They're just not built for the mainline party type of support that other supports are built for and regardless of how you build your character it will not do that. Nore does it have to do that.
• The questions people should ask themselves are rather: What happens when I pair my Druid with 4 Elementalists? What happens when I pair my Soulbeast with 4 Revenants? and so on. What can I do with 4 friends?

The things that these Ranger builds can do that the Firebrands, Scrappers or Tempests can not is what enables them to run the tactics to make such parties impactful. This is where its shorter-cooldowned stealth, damage modifiers and own ranged addition come into play. It is a question of how your buttons mesh with other classes' buttons and roles. You may see commanders do things like dumping Weavers into parties of their own or dump Weavers and Rangers into the same oversized dump-party. What you rarely see is them building purposely-built such parties or expect their Rangers to lead the flanking and positioning of such a party. That is a capability they do not expect and a micromanagement they rarely bother with.

Something similar can be said about Thieves in large-scale content. I've had lengthy discussions in private/guilds about how the Thief and Warrior has had the best pairing in recent-years' meta. The stealth is generally better for effective use of Bubbles than stability is. The Warrior is one of the few classes that can push forward with Thieves and can sustain position on enemy blobs and provide whatever support could give the Thieves another second of staying-power. The Warrior's CC allow the Thief to lands its damage and the vault is one of the buttons in the game that most greatly benefit from Warriors' warhorn skills etc.

The overlap between the classes is great but that is rarely how they are used. Few people think this way or grabs 4 friends for this. Instead they hop into party, the Thief will either get kicked, dump-partied or carried by a mainline party (sometimes enabled by the perceived skill of the Thief-player in question) and Warriors will usually claim the fifth in a mainline party to throw some shouts in while they spend significant time off tag anyway or they just use Bubbles defensively and stack shouts on tag with little other benefit (essentially only using part of their class or only partly participating in their party).

These things make major differences and, as always, good players may endeavour to do the latter but few people take note of it.