User:Masel/Builds/Soulbeast

Sw/A + A/Wh Power Soulbeast

Build Rating (Subjective)

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

Skill Type	Skills
Pig
Sword + Axe
Axe + Warhorn
Utility

Pets

• 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 Pig, as it does the highest damage. 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

• 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.

Rotation Concept & Video Showcase

You can find my most recent rotation showcase here.
Damage Log

Rotation Flow

Section	Notes
General Stuff	The rotation includes a Burst Combo anchored on the Damage Bonus from   "Sic 'Em!" that you want to repeat whenever it comes off cooldown. When you cannot be in melee range, swap to Axe + Warhorn!
Opener (Burst Combo)	Generally, you'll want to try and use as many high-damage skills inside the 10 second window of   "Sic 'Em!":   Storm Spirit (triggers Relic of the Claw)   Maul   Worldly Impact   One Wolf Pack   Whirling Defense
General Rotation	Just use your sword skills,   Maul and   Path of Scars on cooldown.   Path of Scars,   Storm Spirit and   Brutal Charge trigger Relic of the Claw and  Twice as Vicious. Try to maintain both Buffs! Both   Pounce and   Serpent's Strike are Leap skills, so be careful to not put yourself in dangerous positions with them.
CC Skills for Breakbar Damage	Storm Spirit   Brutal Charge   Path of Scars (With Axe + Warhorn)   Call of the Wild (With Rock Gazelle)   Charge

Utility

Utility Skills

Default Skill	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.
Storm Spirit	Good damage skill, also gives you Relic of the Claw uptime.
"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!

Gear & Traits

Important Stats in Hero Panel (descending in Importance):

1. 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
2. Maximize Power
3. Maximize Ferocity

Gear

Armor	Prefix	Rune
Head	Berserker's	Superior Rune of the Scholar
Shoulders	Berserker's	Superior Rune of the Scholar
Chest	Berserker's	Superior Rune of the Scholar
Gloves	Berserker's	Superior Rune of the Scholar
Legs	Berserker's	Superior Rune of the Scholar
Boots	Berserker's	Superior Rune of the Scholar
Trinket	Prefix
Amulet	Berserker's
Ring 1	Berserker's
Ring 2	Berserker's
Accessory 1	Berserker's
Accessory 2	Berserker's
Backpack	Berserker's
Weapon	Prefix	Sigil
Sword (Main Hand)	Berserker's	Superior Sigil of Force
Axe (Off Hand)	Berserker's	Superior Sigil of Impact
Axe (Main Hand)	Berserker's	Superior Sigil of Force
Warhorn (Off Hand)	Berserker's	Superior Sigil of Impact
Purpose	Item Type	Source
Damage	Ascended Food	Cilantro Lime Sous-Vide Steak
Damage	Non-Ascended Food	Bowl of Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash Soup
Survivability	Ascended Food	Peppercorn-Crusted Sous-Vide Steak
Survivability	Non-Ascended Food	Oysters with Zesty Sauce
Damage	Utility	Potent Superior Sharpening Stone
Survivability	Utility	Potion Of Karka Toughness
Damage	Relic	Relic of the Claw

Traits

Skirmishing
Beast Mastery
Soulbeast

• 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.

Open World Build

You can find my most recent open world build showcase here.
Link to the Open World Build in the Editor

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.
• Second, use Dual Maces on the secondary weapon bar and alternate between them and Sword + Axe. More on that in the section on boon coverage.
• Maces drastically enhance sustain via Barrier,  Protection and healing. All that while maintaining strong damage and Defiance bar damage.
• When using Mace skills, you accumulate stacks of   Nature's Strength. At 5 stacks, all your mace skills reset. I recommend using   Wild Strikes last to reset all other skills, as it gives 2 stacks and you gain 1 from   Rampant Growth after swapping to maces.
• You can use a Relic of Zakiros for another boost to survivability at a small damage loss.
• 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.
• You can use   Stone Spirit for area  Aegis and to maintain  Protection.
• 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.

Utility Skills (Open World)

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!