beastmaster suggestion

Hi all. Looking for a suggestion for a beastmaster build to be used while enjoying PvE. Currently, I use:

16 beast mastery
9 expertise
11 marksmanship

charm animal
comfort animal
call of haste
call of protection
brutal strike
predator's pounce
feral lunge
barrage

I'm very happy with how it works, as both my pet and I do good damage. Fluffy also has good survivability with the 2 heals and call of prot. However, I'm looking for suggestions on a few of these skill spots. I just capped enraged lunge, and it looks pretty sweet. However, I don't know if it's worth losing barrage. As it stands, brutal strike hits for +74 damage, and does not use my elite spot, allowing me to be fairly effective as an archer (with vamp sting and zealous, depending on the situation). Bringing enraged lunge would let me drop the other pet attacks and be doing about the same damage as brutal strike (since I would always have both calls and at least enraged recharging).

I'm also wondering if I can do better than feral lunge. The damage and bleeding are good. I had initially wanted an interrupt here, but was not happy with disrupting lunge, as I ended up using it spammed like a normal attack, since it's hard to get a pet interrupt timed right. That's why I went to a stronger attack skill instead. I also played with distracting shot here, but am not totally happy, as I don't have a arrow speed boost, so the delay is hard to get interrupts off in time.

So basically, looking at the 3 spots (barrage, brutal strike, and feral lunge), can I be doing better? Should I sub in Enraged lunge, and if so, what else should I change? Thanks for the help. Oh, and I would like to keep charm, comfort, both calls, and still feel effective with my bow. Thanks!!!

If i Go strictly BeastMaster my build is as follows:

16 Beast Mastery
13 Expertise

I use a +15 energy staff and full druids armor


skills:
Ferosious strike
Melandru's Strike
Brutal Strike
Call Of haste
Comfort Animal
Charm Animal
Symbiotic Bond (I think, the one that redirects damage to you)
Call of protection

Basically with my spider I just keep Call of Haste up and keep spamming melandrus and f-strike until they are <50. Then i hit them with brutal strike and I do upwards of 150 damage. Pretty powerful soloing build for me.


Horible

I'm absolutely enamored with the following build right now, and it seems along the lines of what you're looking for.

Beastmastery: 12 +1 +2 (16)
Expertise: 8 +1 (9)
Marksmanship: 10 +2 (12)
Tactics: whatever's left (3? it doesn't really matter, as this can be swapped around)

Enraged Lunge {E}
Watch Yourself (or skill of choice)
Call of Haste
Predatory Bond
Call of Protection
Charm Animal
Comfort Animal
Res Sig

There's very little waste or overlap skill-wise, as this puppy is geared for hitting the max damage Enraged Lunge has to offer as often as physically possible. The Marksmanship attribute points could be placed elsewhere to support something besides Watch Yourself in that spot (as needed), but if you've no other dire use for them, Marksmanship is as good a place as any for the points.

I use this build :>

BM: 16
Exper: 9
WS: The Rest

Poisonous Bite
Brutal Strike
Enraged Lunge (E)
Call Of Haste
Troll Unguent
Comfort
Charm
Res Signet/Scavenger Strike (Scavenger only for Aspenwood/AB's ect.)


Poisonous Bite - to poison your foes :>
Scavenger Strike - to follow Poisonous and do around 60 dmg
Brutal Strike - Do massive damage when the target's below 50% health
Enraged Lunge - To finish your targets off
Call of Haste - a must in every pure BM build
Troll Unguent - Some Self-heal
Comfort Animal - O rly?
Charm Animal - Ya rly
Res Signet - Eh....Duh? :>

Quote: Originally Posted by Stranger The Ranger Enraged Lunge - To finish your targets off I see this commonly, and completely disagree. Enraged Lunge does excellent damage in and of itself when properly supported, so why reserve it for a finisher when it could be shredding enemies the entire battle?

To take a good look at which skills are better to use for dealing damage, here are the stats over time of the three hardest hitting beast attacks: Enraged Lunge, Scavenger Strike, and Brutal Strike. I assumed 16 beastmastery and both 9 and 13 Expertise. I looked only at the armor ignoring added damage of the attacks, since the base damage will vary by pet evolution and not by which of these attack skills you're using. This also assumes that conditions are perfect for each attack (ie: you've got enough recharging skills for Enraged, your foe is conditioned, and below half-health); I'll take a look at how easy it is to fill those conditions after the numbers.

Enraged Lunge
Energy burden: 1.8 pips with 9 Expertise, 1.2 pips with 13 Expertise
Approximage damage output: 13.33 damage per second

Scavenger Strike
Energy burden: 3.6 pips with 9 Expertise, 3 pips with 13 Expertise
Approximate damage output: 7.0 damage per second

Brutal Strike
Energy burden: 3.6 pips with 9 Expertise, 3 pips with 13 Expertise
Approximate damage output: 12.33 damage per second


From the numbers alone, Enraged Lunge would not only out-damage the other two skills, but it has exactly half of the energy costs. This means you'll be able to use it for longer periods of time and thus have more endurance. In addition to this, when you look at the requirement you must meet in order to get the maximum damage from the skill, the one you have the most control over is Enraged Lunge.

Enraged Lunge requires you to have 4 recharging beastmastery skills on your bar (note: beastmastery skills not beastmastery attacks as it is often misread as). Since the check is made when your pet performs the attack and not when you yourself use the shout, this means that for the vast majority of times, Enraged Lunge will actually count as one of those recharging skills which is powering it up. This means you only need 3 other recharging skills on your bar. Considering that Call of Haste is already an absolute must for a damage dealing beastmaster, that leaves only two other recharging beastmastery skills needed to keep Enraged Lunge performing. Nearly all of the pet buff shouts have incredibly long durations and recharges which play right into Enraged Lunge's hand, so it's no trouble to pick two. This means you'll be able to easily keep Enraged Lunge dishing out its maximum damage. You are in complete control of when it is charged and when not, as it is completely unreliant upon enemy actions (such as condition removal or healing which could happen split-second and neuter the damage of your Scavenger Strike or Brutal Strike).

Scavenger Strike, on the other hand, requires the enemy to be suffering from a condition. Conditions are easy to inflict, however they are also easy to remove and must be inflicted on each and every new enemy. Thus, the better a job you are doing and the faster enemies are dying, the more of a demand Scavenger Strike will make, as you will be required to reapply conditions more frequently. So not only will Scavenger Strike alone put you into a negative energy regen, but it requires additional energy eating skills to be used frequently for it to be operating at maximum efficiency. Thus, Scavenger Strike really only pairs well with Ferocious Strike as an elite, for it is a very demanding attack skill to use.

Brutal Strike requires the enemy to be below half health. This means you won't be required to waste energy keeping it ready, but you will have very little control over when it will and won't be able to deal its maximum damage. Again, the better you perform and the faster enemies die the lower Brutal Strike's efficiency gets, because it becomes harder and harder to time the attack to coincide with when an enemy is below half health. This is especially true if you have a good assassin or axe warrior on your team, as deep wound already makes the lower half of an enemy's health melt away quickly.

The short of it comes down to this: Enraged Lunge is elite because, like most other elite skills, it out-performs the normal skills of a similar nature. It will take up a full half of your pet's attacks and thus does not need to be paired with other attacks skills to do nice damage (and I would advise against stacking your bar with pet attack skills while using Enraged, as you likely won't have the time to use them all).

Thanks for all the feedback so far, guys. I still feel like I could use some more, though. Namely, while I appreciate the builds, they're not really what I said I was looking for. Please keep in mind I still want to be doing decent bow damage. I understand that enraged lunge would be doing the most consistent high damage, but still feel like the use of the elite spot is a hindrance. Barrage is pretty much self sustaining for my desires to do bow damage.

So, if you could keep the suggestions coming, here's a bit more focus:
I want to leave my attributes at:
16 beast
9 exp.
11 marks.

I will leave the following on my skillbar
charm
comfort
call of haste
call of prot.

What I'm looking for is the best output for the last 4 spots on combined damage between me and my elder black widow. Be that enraged lunge and 3 bow attacks, or barrage with 3 pet attacks, or anything in between. Thanks again.

Quote: Originally Posted by Jenosavel I see this commonly, and completely disagree. Enraged Lunge does excellent damage in and of itself when properly supported, so why reserve it for a finisher when it could be shredding enemies the entire battle?

To take a good look at which skills are better to use for dealing damage, here are the stats over time of the three hardest hitting beast attacks: Enraged Lunge, Scavenger Strike, and Brutal Strike. I assumed 16 beastmastery and both 9 and 13 Expertise. I looked only at the armor ignoring added damage of the attacks, since the base damage will vary by pet evolution and not by which of these attack skills you're using. This also assumes that conditions are perfect for each attack (ie: you've got enough recharging skills for Enraged, your foe is conditioned, and below half-health); I'll take a look at how easy it is to fill those conditions after the numbers.

Enraged Lunge
Energy burden: 1.8 pips with 9 Expertise, 1.2 pips with 13 Expertise
Approximage damage output: 13.33 damage per second

Scavenger Strike
Energy burden: 3.6 pips with 9 Expertise, 3 pips with 13 Expertise
Approximate damage output: 7.0 damage per second

Brutal Strike
Energy burden: 3.6 pips with 9 Expertise, 3 pips with 13 Expertise
Approximate damage output: 12.33 damage per second


From the numbers alone, Enraged Lunge would not only out-damage the other two skills, but it has exactly half of the energy costs. This means you'll be able to use it for longer periods of time and thus have more endurance. In addition to this, when you look at the requirement you must meet in order to get the maximum damage from the skill, the one you have the most control over is Enraged Lunge.

Enraged Lunge requires you to have 4 recharging beastmastery skills on your bar (note: beastmastery skills not beastmastery attacks as it is often misread as). Since the check is made when your pet performs the attack and not when you yourself use the shout, this means that for the vast majority of times, Enraged Lunge will actually count as one of those recharging skills which is powering it up. This means you only need 3 other recharging skills on your bar. Considering that Call of Haste is already an absolute must for a damage dealing beastmaster, that leaves only two other recharging beastmastery skills needed to keep Enraged Lunge performing. Nearly all of the pet buff shouts have incredibly long durations and recharges which play right into Enraged Lunge's hand, so it's no trouble to pick two. This means you'll be able to easily keep Enraged Lunge dishing out its maximum damage. You are in complete control of when it is charged and when not, as it is completely unreliant upon enemy actions (such as condition removal or healing which could happen split-second and neuter the damage of your Scavenger Strike or Brutal Strike).

Scavenger Strike, on the other hand, requires the enemy to be suffering from a condition. Conditions are easy to inflict, however they are also easy to remove and must be inflicted on each and every new enemy. Thus, the better a job you are doing and the faster enemies are dying, the more of a demand Scavenger Strike will make, as you will be required to reapply conditions more frequently. So not only will Scavenger Strike alone put you into a negative energy regen, but it requires additional energy eating skills to be used frequently for it to be operating at maximum efficiency. Thus, Scavenger Strike really only pairs well with Ferocious Strike as an elite, for it is a very demanding attack skill to use.

Brutal Strike requires the enemy to be below half health. This means you won't be required to waste energy keeping it ready, but you will have very little control over when it will and won't be able to deal its maximum damage. Again, the better you perform and the faster enemies die the lower Brutal Strike's efficiency gets, because it becomes harder and harder to time the attack to coincide with when an enemy is below half health. This is especially true if you have a good assassin or axe warrior on your team, as deep wound already makes the lower half of an enemy's health melt away quickly.

The short of it comes down to this: Enraged Lunge is elite because, like most other elite skills, it out-performs the normal skills of a similar nature. It will take up a full half of your pet's attacks and thus does not need to be paired with other attacks skills to do nice damage (and I would advise against stacking your bar with pet attack skills while using Enraged, as you likely won't have the time to use them all). Ya ok, I agree with you, I didnt say you had to wait until the target's almost dead...and....

Argh, forget what I said back there, Enraged Lunge ftw =)

I use:

Predator's Pounce
Enraged Lunge
Brutal Strike
Symbiotic Bond
Troll Ungeant
Charm/Comfort
Res

Quote: Originally Posted by tuperwho

Quote: Originally Posted by tuperwho

Quote: Originally Posted by oOWakleonOo

I see many people using beastmasters with Wilderness Survival. However, I'm definitely against it. Strongly. The only thing which Wilderness Survival really offers a pet build is Troll Unguent (I dare say that 90% of the time, the WS using pet rangers have that as their only WS skill), and Predatory Bond will do the same thing without requiring you to spec into an additional attribute. In fact, at 16 Beastmastery and with Call of Haste Predatory Bond will heal you 17.5 health per second at a cost of .6 pips of energy. If you somehow manage to spare 10 points to put into WS Troll will only give you 12.3 hp per second at a cost of .7 pips of energy and a considerable (and recurring) cast-time during which you can't be dealing your bow damage. A more likely, and much worse, case is having WS between 6 and 8. Then Troll drops to 9.2 health per second and 10.8 health per second respectively.

The WS preparations do add to your player damage, but then so does RTW again without requiring you to split into another attribute line (since as tuperwho said, if you're dealing bow damage you need marksmanship). RTW will do just as much damage as Kindle when you're considering high armored enemies, since RTW has armor-ignoring damage and Kindle does not.

So yeah. I highly recommend not splitting your attention further by using WS while playing a bow-beastmaster.

Charm Animal
Comfort Animal
Call of Protection
Symbiothic Bond
Predatory Bond
Call of Haste
Enraged Lounge
Tiger's Fury

Attribute points:
Beast Mastery 16
Marksmanship 11
Expertise 10

This is the build I use as a beast master. With a long bow I'm always out of range of enemy's attacks and I can keep dishing out bow damage quite quickly thanks to Tiger's Fury, in the meantime my pet is dishing high dps thanks to Enraged Lounge (it's always completely charged due to the high recharge of Calls and Bonds, Tiger's Fury gives a little help if needed).

I find it quite useful, the only drawback is if my pet is blinded I become completely useless!

Quote: Originally Posted by Munanko Roha

Thanks for the tips!

Any advice for the blinded pet? I don't want to rely on a monk secondary to take care of it, is there any other way?

Quote: Originally Posted by Munanko Roha

Quote: Originally Posted by Jenosavel

As much as I personally love the symbiotic bond + pred bond combo, it does have the weakness of leaving you very stranded if you pet is blinded. However, in PvE, you can generally tell ahead of time if you are going to run into mobs that can blind you.

Whats all this exp 9 business?

If we multiply 9 by 4 and get 36, the multiply by 5 or 10 (skill costs) and divide by 100, we get either 1.8 or 3.6 off of the skill cost. Why not simply put another point into BM, to get 2 or 4 off of the energy cost?

BTW, I've found the Enraged Lunge + Brutal Strike combo great in PVE, for with the help of your allies' attacks and following your first lunge (including the time your pet takes to run down there), the opponent's health should already be down to less then half. Here is something close to what I run in PVE...

I've also been experimenting with the BM KD skill combinations in AB. It is kind of hard to get the timing down (especially with bears' brutal mauling), but it works great at confusing single enemies...

Quote: Originally Posted by IIIBNIII