A More Durable Beastmaster

I tried the R/Mo beastmaster build, and my kitty was sturdier than many a warrior I've seen. However, the damage output was rather low, and conditional for the bleeding, etc. Also, I was really fragile when my pet did die, or a few snow ettins decided to hit me instead of my cat. To that end, my Ranger/Warrior Beastmaster:

Sever Artery
Gash
Apply Poison
Ferocious Strike
Troll Unguent
Throw Dirt
Whirling Defense
Call of Protection

This way, while the PBAoE nuke-ability is gone, single-target damage should be much higher: you're lending considerable damage via conditions, and your pet is just as durable as ever. Also, you're much sturdier yourself. Should be a good combo.

umm if you are gonna melee why not just go W/R? That way you can have same build, but tougher armor, and better melee dmg from yourself. Unless you are using expertise attribute...

just curious

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I prefer IW + everything else Beast mastery.

Now that I can see my pet damage... I often see it doing more damage than myself in regular attacks =/ and that wasn't even 16 bm.

Although pet supposely don't have the +15% stance/hp<>/enchant and +20% customized... it seems that their damage doesn't say so or something... maybe I go test it myself to see it for sure.

oh... one more thing... MORE PET CHOICES PLZ!! I wish the pet model is as good as the characters... hmm... maybe a charr pet

Try a R/N for a PvE Beastmaster

Mark of Pain
Enfeebling Blood
<Beast skills
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Parisitic Bond/Life Siphon/Life Transfer/Some sort of self heal
Revive Animal

Does some wonders against melee oriented mobs.

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So I was careless and forgot charm animal :P I've seen dumber things done.

Ok, to take better advantage of the R/W theme, how about this:

CHARM ANIMAL (happy? )
Call of Protection
Ferocious Strike (E)
Seeking Blade
some other energy-based or cheap adren sword skill goes here
Troll's Unguent
Whirling Defense
Throw Dirt

Hammer could work instead of sword, and my be better in terms of damage. Also, it's ok if you swing slower, since you're pet is helping you.

Counter Blow
Can't decide if Belly Smash or Crushing Blow would be better...shorter blind so I can sub out Throw Dirt or Deep Wound and keep the Dirt... Also, yes, this is Expertise-heavy, beat out only by Beast Mastery. Then your weapon attribute and WS gets whats left.

If you're not going full in WS, ditch Troll Unguent.

But a self-heal is almost mandatory in PvE, and it's either WS for Troll's or Tactics for Heal Sig. That, or I could wait in towns for an indeterminable length of time while we search out two monks at least, to cover my, and everyone else's healing.

I'm not sure what the build gains by the warrior secondary. At this point, Seeking Blade is the only warrior skill you have in it. Why go close to the enemies for that one skill alone? Why not use a ranger bow attack and be able to keep your distance?

The thread title is a bit misleading. I was expecting a R/W pet build which used some defensive stances from warrior or something. As it stands all of your defenses are from the ranger class. How does adding in Seeking Blade etc. make you any less "fragile" than you were before hand? If anything, you're more fragile, as you're now in melee range of everything yourself. If you're going for a more "sturdy" Beastmaster, rather than warrior secondary try elementalist and use Armor of Earth or wards.

I do get the point that you're trying to increase the DPS via the sword; however, I'm not convinced as to why sword attacks are better than pet attacks when you're so heavily invested in Beastmastery and Expertise. For comparison:
Seeking Blade at 7 swords (I'd assume your value would be somewhere in there, though you never posted exact att points) does +10 damage or bleeding depending on whether its evaded or not.
Predator's Pounce (or Feral Lunge or Beastial Pounce) at 15 Beastmastery (good place to be for a beastmaster, if not more) all do +20 damage in addition to other effects. Why invest in more lines when the ones you already have seem to do more anyways?

Another note: since you're dealing with PvE, why don't you have a pet rez? Pets don't take a death penalty, so there's absolutely no excuse for PvE Beastmaster not to take one. Similarly, unless this is a solo build, you should have some kind of a ressurect in there as well.

Also, after you changed the build to allow for Charm Animal, you removed Apply Poison. Initially you commented on how conditioning was a crux of your DPS, so you might want to make sure you're careful to keep that in there.

Just tossing out some thoughts here, now. If you're looking for a higher damage output from your Beastmaster, what does the R/W build have over a build that's pure ranger like the following?

Attributes:
Beastmastery: 12 + 3
Expertise: 8 + 1
Marksmanship: 9 + 1 + 2
Wilderness Survival: 0
(Notice here that you have enough points left to raise any att from 0 to 5 depending on what you feel you need at the moment)

Ferocious Strike {E}
Read the Wind
Tiger's Fury
Penetrating Attack
Charm Animal
Comfort Animal
Call of Protection
Ressurection Signet (or rez of choice)

If you feel the need to, you can replace Penetrating Attack with something like Whirling Defense or Troll Unguent, though it really isn't neccessary in PvE.

If it's a build that can simply survive longer, why not something more like this?

Beastmaster: 8 + 1 + 3
Expertise: 8 + 1
Wilderness Survival: 11 + 1
Earth Magic: 9

Ferocious Strike {E}
Troll Unguent
Symbiosis
Armor of Earth
Charm Animal
Comfort Animal
Call of Protection
Ressurection Signet (or rez of choice)

EDIT: Oh, and hench monks work just as well as player monks 90% of the time.

If it's PvE, depending on where you are makes a huge difference in farming. As of right now, I'm solo farming the desert... or duo/trio griffons with just other beastmasters. So much fun I tell ya. Now, I am switching builds in town based on what monsters are outside... but here are a couple of R/Me variants I've been using lately with great success soloing.

Outside of Prophet's Path (primarily melee/physical ranged attack monsters)

Anti-melee
Illusion 9
Domination 3
Inspiration 6
Beastmastery 11 (15)
Expertise 9 (10)

Ferocious Strike {E}
Feral Lunge
Scavenger Strike
Comfort Animal
Charm Animal
Spirit of Failure
Sympathetic Visage
Distortion

The core of your defense with this anti melee build is interesting, not totally full proof but very close! Basically besides watching your pet work things over (and healing when necessary), just hex all the monsters with Spirit of Failure and when they come over to you... hit distortion. You're only losing 2 energy every time distortion works, and gaining 3 energy from Spirit of Failure everytime they miss you. Couple with Ferocious Strike it makes energy far less difficult to come by. There's really nothing else to it, comfort animal heals extremely well... and whenever minotaurs or griffons start to get in some lucky shots (or when they're at about 50% health) I cast sympathetic visage onto whoever's tanking at the moment and wreck their adrenaline. Most of the time distortion takes care of the rest. The only real problem with soloing griffons for me has been the same with hydras, sometimes there are just too many in a group.

On the offensive side here, since they're always going to be attacking Feral Lunge is awesome... 25 seconds of bleeding. Then you can just scavenger strike/ferocious strike for high damage and further energy management.


Hydra conversations

Same attributes listed above

Ferocious Strike
Predator's Pounce
Disrupting Lunge
Comfort Animal
Charm Animal
Arcane Conundrum
Guilt
Mantra of Flame

I try to start out with hydras who are by themselves, but it's usually unlikely to happen... but first thing I cast is Guilt. After that it's arcane conundrum. After that I call out predator's pounce while I'm running away (and disrupting lunge if applicable). Once both hydras are solely attacking the pet, the combined healing is more than enough while the pet works over the slow casting hydra. Then I just repeat the process, using the Comfort Animal "revive" function as a ghetto heal if necessary. It's really hard to dipute the 136 base exp per kill those hydras give out.

For both builds, I'm using Gorrel's Cane and the desert "max recharge/casting speed" illusion chakram

Both of the defensive natures involved in these builds are interesting, but they really keep me alive!

If anyone would ever like a demo, please feel free to send me a tell. If I'm on at the moment I'm normally solo farming the desert unless there is business to be taken care of.

What I've noticed smart beast masters doing is ditching Marksmanship altogether and wielding staves that comply to their secondary stat...

[OH THE HORROR!!!]

The staff feeds from the secondary stat/skill. You want to go HIGH beast 12-16 so no reason not to ditch bow. It does look wierd though...

Mine is a R/Mo smiter build but I use bow because I get a LOT more range from it then any staff...

Amen to that, +15 energy ftw. You don't even need the druid's armor. I do that when I'm trapping, too. Staffs are the overlooked ranger weapon.

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I had forgotten about using staves on a Ranger. I actually used them quite a bit with my R/E when he was in trapping/PBAoE mode.