Ranger Beastmaster, Help!

Im a new player and everyone tells me pets aren't effective, but I love using them so much I use them anyway.

I was just wondering if someone could help me improve this build (its fairly good in random arenas (MY best is 30 consecutive wins, 35 when I was lvl 10 in Ascalon) but really falls a bit short in Tombs and GvG

R/? (currently I use no other class skills)

9 Expertise
9 Marksmanship
12 Beastmastery

Brutal Strike
Call of Haste
Feral Lunge
Predators Pounce
Comfort Animal
Ferocious Strike {e}
Charm Animal
Ressurection Sig

I have the druids set and a Tamers mask equipped

I've been testing a beastmastery build in CAs and TAs since the new patch...I'll just give you a quick hint...you can't rely entirely on your pet. The pet's real use is to provide a steady damage source, and a possible distraction. Focus as much on Marksmanship as you do on Beastmastery. Bring Ferocious Strike [E] to keep your energy up and use it in conjunction with a strong bow attack...you and your pet can "spike" together for some pretty impressive damage.

Throw out pounce, lunge, and brutal strike...replace at least two with bow attacks

Good luck with this, I'll post some real suggestions when I finish toying with this myself.

I'd just run brutal strike and Ferocious Strike. Brutal Strike is so nice for helping to finish someone off, and the two bow attacks in place of feral lunge and predator's pounce allows you to "diversify" your damage more Or better yet, Maiming Strike instead of Brutal Strike for the lucky victim you'd like to team up on since most people in a fight try not to stay in one place very long. All the pet attacks do such nice damage along with their effects, it can be hard to choose.


Could play interrupt to the caster while your pet chases someone else down, and still manage your energy! For the bow attacks, since you don't have something to speed up your shots in general... interrupting could turn into a difficult task. However, debilitating shot and precision shot would give you some flavor.

I haven't tried a total ranger beastmaster build yet... been still doing hybrids with casters (working on a mesmer varient currently) so I'd love to know how it turns out later. High end beastmastery can really pile on the damage and crits though, so a caster secondary with a wand could be something worth looking into.

I'd just run brutal strike and Ferocious Strike. Brutal Strike is so nice for helping to finish someone off, and the two bow attacks in place of feral lunge and predator's pounce allows you to "diversify" your damage more Or better yet, Maiming Strike instead of Brutal Strike for the lucky victim you'd like to team up on since most people in a fight try not to stay in one place very long. All the pet attacks do such nice damage along with their effects, it can be hard to choose.


Could play interrupt to the caster while your pet chases someone else down, and still manage your energy! For the bow attacks, since you don't have something to speed up your shots in general... interrupting could turn into a difficult task. However, debilitating shot and precision shot would give you some flavor.

I haven't tried a total ranger beastmaster build yet... been still doing hybrids with casters (working on a mesmer varient currently) so I'd love to know how it turns out later. High end beastmastery can really pile on the damage and crits though, so a caster secondary with a wand could be something worth looking into.

At the moment my PvE ranger is only level eleven (I used faction to unlock a few of those skills, and I have been using ether feast to heal myself, what other mesmer skills do you suggest.

Also I am loathe to drop predators pounce as it is an excellant way to keep my Pet alive, (I use a Moa Bird for the Piercing type attacks).

What runes would you advise I use?

I would also appreciate more advice on what skills I should change and the advantages/disadvantages of changing them.

Thank you for your advice so far though.

This is my build...

16 Beastmastery (12+3+1)
5 Expertise (4+1)
8 Wilderness Survival (7+1)
10 Marksmanship (9+1)

Skills:

Ferocious Strike {e}
Feral lunge (can be switched for disrupting lunge if you're fussed)
Predator's Pounce
Call of Haste
Troll Unguent
Comfort Animal
Charm Animal
Rebirth (This is optional for a R/Mo but it can be switched for anything)

With this build I never run out of energy and my pet never dies. I need to use troll unguent occasionally to keep my health up but other than that my pet deals out massive ammounts of damage. With 16 BM I can keep a foe on constant bleed while using ferocious and pounce to maintain pet's health and my energy. Call of haste is a nice skill as well. 30 Seconds of improved speed? including attack speed? with NO penalties? Your pet can run faster than a sprinting warrior with this on.. providing it's not a bear lol. In battle I first use call of haste, followed by feral lunge, then i use ferocious strike and predators pounce simultaniously to keep up the pets health and my energy, while inflicting massive ammounts of damage due to the quikenning effect of call of haste. I use call of haste again when it runs out, and feral lunge every 20 seconds or so to keep a constant bleed. If you really wanted to rebirth could be changed for disrupting lunge, which is a nice interupting skill, especially for PvP. This build needs a little polishing for use in PvP but so far this build completely owns any foes in PvE.

This is pure beast mastery, no bow attacks have been included, so you will want to have a good 15>50 bow.. possibly a short bow. I use a 15>50 longbow to keep myself away from the mobs that my pet is tanking.. otherwise they attack me instead.

EDIT: Rebirth could even be replaced for something like choking gas or ignite arrows for nice area damage. Personally i'd recommend ignite..

Hope that helped