P/R Beastmaster Guide to ToPK w Heroes/Hench

Tomb of Primeval Kings is a great farming spot for those running the traditional B/P build. However, it's pretty hard to get your paragon into one of these groups.

I've done about 5 runs with B/P groups using my paragon specced as an orders style para (AoF, Burning Refrain, Blazing Finale, GFTE, etc.). The groups enjoyed having me because we made good time. However, acceptance of paragons is still pretty low in B/P groups.

So, I thought I'd try going with heroes/hench and see how it went.

Not too bad, as you can tell from the screenie. We suffered only 1 death and took about 5-10 more minutes than a human B/P group.

We had only 3 pets since an MM hero is essential and only 2 barragers. You'll notice that the pets are all bears and for good reason. A bear's Brutal Mauling skill will trigger the effects of Anthem of Flame as well as Crippling Anthem. In addition, if you have Blazing Finale on a pet it will set adjacent foes on fire as well each time it uses Brutal Mauling.

Yes, I'm very aware of Epinephrine's and Jenosavel's pet guide. Brutal Mauling results in a slower attack speed, but it does an additional +42 dmg (from 3s of burning) and inflicts cripple.

The Build:

P/R Beastmaster: 15 Command, 12 Leader, 9 Spear, rest in Beast

Anthem of Flame - Only works on one arrow from Barrage and on Brutal Mauling from pets.
Crippling Anthem {E} - Not loving this as my elite. It's got some utility since mobs will try to flee from Firestorms from your Zaishen Mage henchies and it's helpful when the Grasps of Insanity get to your squishies. Maybe Incoming or Anthem of Fury would be more useful. Further testing needed.
Blazing Finale - Use it on pets. Recharges in 8s and lasts 30s. Should be up on all pets as much as possible.
They're on Fire - Why not reduce dmg by 41% since you've got burning going anyway.
Stand Your Ground - Lasts 35s, recharges in 45s and adds +24 armor to all allies (pets and minions as well).
We Shall Return - For 10 seconds, whenever party members within earshot use a resurrection Skill, their fallen allies return with 10...62% more Health and 5...41% more Energy. Recharges in 15s. A VERY, VERY important skill because it works on pets. When pets are rezzed while this shout is active, they will return with 100% health (because it adds 75% HP at 15 Command) as long as you have Beast Mastery at 5 or more. This way they can return to their job of tanking the mobs immediately without taxing your healers.
Comfort Animal - Only used to rez your pet, never to heal it.
Charm Animal - Obviously.

R/P Barrager: 15 or 16 in Marksmanship, 8 or more in Expertise, 5-9 in Beast Mastery, rest in Command

Barrage {E} - Good for dmg and building adrenaline for GFTE.
Distracting Shot - Heroes are great at interrupting.
Savage Shot - Another interrupt.
Go For the Eyes - Increases crit chance for all allies, pets and minions included. However, testing by others has shown that the effect on minions is strange b/c the crit dmg varies.
Otyugh's Cry - BM must be 5 or higher for this to work. Your hero won't use this, so you'll have to target a foe and click this skill. A little annoying to micromanage but only needed once every 30s. +20 AL on pets does help.
Comfort Animal - Disable this for your heroes. You have to rez their pets for them.
Charm Animal - Of course.
Signet of Return - Will rez allies with only 5% HP, but combined with We Shall Return, that's 80% HP. Never know when a re-usable rez on a hero will come in handy since rez sigs don't recharge until the end.

R/W Barrager: 15 Marksman, 10 Tactics, 8 or more in Expertise, rest in Beast.

I'll only address the skills that are different from the R/P build above.

Watch Yourself - Barrage builds up adrenaline for this rapidly. Adds +18 AL to the party for 9s.
Call of Protection - I need to find a better skill than this one. Didn't see a use for Shields Up! or I would have taken it instead.
Rez Sig - Resurrect target party member. That party member is returned to life with 100% Health and 25% Energy. Make that 75% energy if We Shall Return is active.

N/Me MM: 16 Death, 13 Soul Reaping, rest in Inspiration.

Animate Bone Minion - Melee dmg.
Animate Bone Fiend - Ranged dmg.
Jagged Bones {E} - Helps keep the minion count high.
Blood of the Master - Heal minions.
Death Nova - AoE plus poison.
Leech Sig - Returns very little energy. Mostly here for interrupting.
Power Drain - Same as leech sig.
Rez Sig

An alternative MM build would probably work just as well.

Take the Zaishen Healers and the Zaishen Mages as your henchies. The mages do good dmg (better than the ranger henchies from what I can tell).

I can't emphasize how important We Shall Return is. It's needed to get pets up at full health. It's also helpful when a party member goes down since a rez sig will bring them back with 75% of their energy rather than the standard 25%.

With Stand Your Ground and Watch Yourself, you party should have +42 armor almost all the time. Your pets should have +42 armor as well from Otyugh's Cry and Stand Your Ground, so they can tank better. Minions only gain the +24 AL from Stand your ground, but it still helps. Further dmg reduction occurs thru burning and They're on Fire.

Pets will cause aoe burning (if they have blazing finale on them) each time Anthem of Flame, Crippling Anthem, Otyugh's Cry, Stand Your Ground, and GFTE expires on them. That's a lot of burning!!!

Defense is set pretty high in case of large aggro. Also, heroes and hench don't handle it as well as human players when half the party gets wiped so I'd rather not face that situation if I can avoid it.

Pulling mobs and setting flags for your henchies is key. But if you've done a few tombs runs you should know the pop-up spots and which route to take and so on.

Note that my pet was a lvl 18 when I started while the other two hero pets were lvl 16. Despite this we had hardly any trouble. If you've been wanting to take your para for a spin in ToPK try this out.

Notes: Bears can only found at lvl 5 (best place is E of Port Sledge). If you want to level them up to dire, you can use the afk trick. I wanted hearty bears for their better tanking ability so I took them for a coupla runs in the desolation using the Wurm Spoors.

You can use pets other than bears if you like (esp if you don't want to level them) but that means that blazing finale will trigger on all pets at the same time from AoF and Crippling Anthem (after 10s). This isn't as useful, since pets tend to be bunched together and burning does not stack.

I expected dmg to be lower than a traditional B/P group due to having only 2 barragers vs. 5, and not having an orders necro. However, if the dmg is lower it's a small difference as I found out while going thru. I expect that the mass burning helps even things out.

Yes, I roll w/o a rez sig when going w heroes/hench. However, if I had to include it, the skill I'd probably take out would be Crippling Anthem. Yes, I know it's also insane to run a build w/o an elite ;P