I Tried DPS SOULBEAST in Guild Wars 2 - Thoughts

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The Build:

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Editing done by Noxxi:

Outro Music:

[Draxynnic]

I raided with a ranger main back in the pre-EoD days when that basically meant druid for mechanics, soulbeast, or nothing. You could pretty much always tell when a mechanic, or simple movement, interrupted a Whirling Defence from the pained cry of "myyyy or

[tabe]

Hybrid weaver:"Am I a joke to you?"

[PipGW]

Hi Muk! Glad to see you cover my favourite class <3

Some tips to help you and some others:
Hybrid Soulbeast is a BURST condition class, meaning it has a specific gear setup which you glossed over in the video. The sigils on the weapons are not the same, having geomancy on the axe/torch set and bursting on the dagger/axe set. This is because the build times all its damage, including the sharpening stones/sharpen spines/vulture stance usage around its sic' em burst. This means that using any of these skills while not under the effect of bursting sigil (which you demonstrate in the video) is very punishing for the dps of the class.

During your golem demonstration, you also don't mention dagger 3 usage. This skill received a massive buff, meaning it deals massive power damage (further buffed by sic 'em), a LOT of poison damage, and even applies self-quickness. It's so good its used twice per loop, same with axe 4 which applies TaV. While demonstrating you swapped weapons as soon as the swap was available, which is a big mistake on this class.

The burst rotation also needs to be performed very quickly, as another component of the burst is the burning bolts from the whirl finisher (axe 5) within the fire field (torch 5). Since you start with torch 5, and end with axe 5, you need to be very quick with the burst, and make sure you're positioned correctly to have all the bolts hit.


In terms of it being easy to learn, I would say its harder to learn if you've never played soulbeast and having seen the pet/self interactions with traits and sic 'em before. I would consider power and condi to both be easier to learn. This isn't to say its difficult, just that the skill floor is certainly higher than other classes.

If you want to discuss some of the finer points of the class or soulbeast in general I'd be happy to talk sometime (same goes for any viewers here if they have questions, always happy to help).

Overall, I'm happy to see this class get a bit of publicity since there's very few people who seem to play it, and a rare handful who can play it well. Here's hoping to see more in the future!

[ralfisme]

Personaly I really love the Soulbeast, for me it's the ultimate ranger. I mainly picked it because I like classes with a nature theme to them, and merging with your pet to take on their skills yourself fit's that theme perfectly. The pet not following me around doesn't bother me since you're stil interacting with it, just in a different manner.

[irishsage]

As a super brand new player, i literally understand almost nothing about this video....but my goodness this looks cool af

[taylorgarrett]

good thing is that ranger ax 5 is also a projectile reflect as well
which can be usefull in some fights

find it fully how ya basically just flail the axes around and yet that somehow reflects projectiles

[enkeny]

For CC use Warthog pet. It do the CC automatically and while you merge, you have another cc and it is condition type for soulbeast.
Hybrid builds has a major flaw: if your target has strong defense against condition or strike damage, then your damage will be lower in both case.
Also always use axe 4 before axe 5. CC increase your damage! So if you are merged with Warthog, use pet skills too. but not near axe4 timing, they do not stack.

[TohnR]

I play this build and gotta agree with the review.
It's easy to learn and does a good enough damage output which are the main reasons why I started using it, wanna enjoy the content and not spend hours learning rotations on my side classes ahah

[DocOverlord]

Haha, I'm one of those weird players who wants to play a Ranger without a pet, it's cool to hear Mukluk point that out.

Also I like how Noxxi is cutting off the raspberry at the end :)

[felsig]

I love ❤️ Noxxi's editing ("get sharp" close-up is priceless). Please, I'm begging you Noxxi, keep up the great work 👍 😂

[IndigoKnight]

I play a (probably not very optimized) power soulbeast, and I am really wanting to use spear for it when it comes out. I hope they have tweaked the damage numbers to make it good.

[luca]

I feel like showcasing Soulbeast and NOT focusing on the Power build is suboptimal considering power SB is still one of, if not the best burst dps in the game. So strong in fact it makes most other power builds obsolete if played by a decent player.

[Leafycoke]

Is that excel sheet of all the builds on your website or a google drive? It would be cool to keep it updated each patch.

[Anystic]

I've been enjoying this series a lot, even tried some new things myself but...
Maybe this is because I mainly play both Ranger and Ele or I'm missing something here but I hardly see this as any better and relative in difficulty to play as the power weaver you showcased.
No shade intended, it's probably just your own bias/familiarity for ranger and not knowing or (assuming) not enjoying ele. It just feels like an unfair judgement comparatively like for example...all the utility skills are damage.
maybe just something to keep in mind. I hope you give ele another shot sometime in the future!
Cheers!

[Relhio]

Ayyy, this is almost similar to the Untamed build I run.

[Bunstonious]

The build looks interesting, the only thing that I dont' really like about Ranger is main hand axe just makes me sad, I don't really like the abilities. Other than that it looks like a cool build.

[CowcaineHA]

the holosmith definitely be snowcrows agent
hes pumping hard

[demenion]

i really like hybrid slb, but sadly it has many drawbacks. especially the cc is sad, even if you use warthog instead of bristleback.
- you have the option to run offhand dagger instead of torch, it's a bit less burst, but you gain an extra evasion
- you would always first replace sic' em for utility since vulture stance and sharpening stones do tons of damage. bear stance is also a nice stance to share in condi-heavy fight


i would argue that pure condi slb is easier to play and more reliable while also providing more cc with spike trap and shortbow 5. hybrid is a really nice option for most encounters, but you already noticed the issues with axe 5 which you also have on all power variants of slb. on pure condi you also play shortbow which does a lot of dps, even when ranged unlike hybrid slb which has no condis on the axe autos really (except for bleeding from crits). moreover, even more so than for hybrid, on pure condi you have a massive amount of sustain from rugged growth (like extra regen while you have prot) and predator's cunning (life steal whenever you apply poison, which you do a lot)

[ogrejd]

I'm probably the most useless Soulbeast for DPS or any other role. Plodding around Seitung Province at the moment with Mace/Mace (with a White Tiger) because I accidentally saw the SotO achievements for 1000 kills with each class's new weapons and now I have no choice but to do it. :P And, like my other characters, he has trouble even sustaining 2500 dps (no, not missing a 0 there :P) in normal open world roaming 'cos I am, well, not a good player. There's a reason I don't inflict myself on fractal & strike groups... :)

[raarsi-dar]

Gotta get sharp for that death by a thousand cuts, got it.