Curse

KingAlkaiser · Dec 03, 2010, 11:17 PM // 23:17

Hello I am interested in making the melee + beastmaster build after hearing bow suck as beastmasters. Anyways what is the "best" secondary for melee oriented beastmaster?

R/W-hammer
R/A-dagger
R/P-Spear

or will any of those 3 along with /R secondary be any better?

any information is greatly appreciated.

**Marty Silverblade** · Dec 03, 2010, 11:23 PM // 23:23

You've neglected to mention /D for scythe. Scythes are powerful and leave plenty of room for Pet stuff. That's likely the best option. Daggers are fun too and probably the next best option. Hammer/Pet builds are more of a PvP thing.

PS: Spears aren't melee weapons, though I hear they work well enough with pets.

Amy Awien · Dec 03, 2010, 11:48 PM // 23:48

R/D Pet + Scythe works just fine, as Marty pointed out, plenty of room on the skillbar - no dagger chains to complete/repeat - and it's AoE shines when you most need it.

R/X uses Expertise to reduce the costs of attack skills, X/R doesn't offer expertise but will have to rely on the strenghts of it's own primary. Ranger skills tend to be on the expensive side for some other physical primaries, in particular Never Rampage Alone might be to expensive to run on any non-ranger primary.

RedDog91 · Dec 04, 2010, 12:49 AM // 00:49

I mainly use R/P with a spear. I have 2 or sometimes 3 spear attacks (3 normally for farming low lower level foes for collectibles for nick), 2 pet attacks, a buff for the pet, Heal as One, self-defense skill and/or armor buff.

But I have (a few months ago) run R/D with a scythe. Just have Apply Poison to make your scythe and run the rest as pet attacks and a heal (maybe Eremite's Attack for some damage for yourself). The heal is often Heal as One, but can be Companionship and use an Elite attack.

I know theres a few 1 or 2 R/A builds with daggers and a pet, but they are made for PvP and in my personal opinion aren't that great. Pretty much any other beastmaster can easily beat a R/A dagger beastmaster.

NerfHerder · Dec 04, 2010, 01:19 AM // 01:19

For a beastmaster, I have found R/P works best. But, its not a true melee. A spear alone has really good damage output. Your pet is doing most of the damage and taking the heat. Meanwhile your far enough behind to retreat or keep the pressure on, depending on your situation. With cheap skills like barbed spear and poisonous bite, you can keep your target at -7 degen(same as burning) consistantly, while doing damage from pet and spear attacks.

This setup also gives you the ability to use an elite like Heal as One for an awesome heal. Rampage as One, Cruel Spear, and even Stunning Strike are other elites you can use effectively.

The Ranger builds on PvX should get you started if your looking for a build to use. In PvE add Asuran Scan.

For true melee I would go Scythe or Axe.

Gennadios · Dec 04, 2010, 01:49 AM // 01:49

Depends mostly on how you plan to manage your energy.

If you plan on Scavenger Strike, Scythes and Spears have the best damage and condition dealing capability.

Daggers are a good option in terms of pure damage, but to be viable you'll need 3-4 skills in your dagger chain, which leaves you with way less room for pet attacks and support skills.

Striken7 · Dec 04, 2010, 02:43 AM // 02:43

Since you included it, R/P is my favorite. For actual melee, I'd vote R/D.

KingAlkaiser · Dec 04, 2010, 09:17 AM // 09:17

Thank you all for the information, i got myself a cool looking black emo moa bird and i am eagerer to start my beastmaster build.

unfortunately i don't own nightfall so /d out of question.

how should i go about beast mastering? 12 points into beastmaster/9 wilderness survival/9expertise? using apply poison/bleeding damage while my pet does his thing for one target spike damage.

i read here in forums someone say beastmaster is all or nothing points is this true to e "best" effective pet master?

beastmaster have almost no AoE how do we around this? should we concentrate on spiking as one team or should i use stuff like mark of pain? is this the reason you guys said that /d was good for additional AoW damage with pet doing single hits?

is melee weapon only way to take advantage of pet? symbiotic skills?

thank you all who replied i am very grateful for all information provided. I enjoy making pet/animals/ builds in games and i was hoping in making this my main so i was hoping in finding out any strategy/sub class/build info to be effective for my teammates in PvE.

Amy Awien · Dec 04, 2010, 01:33 PM // 13:33

You'd normally put points in Beastmastery and Expertise or in Beastmastery, WeaponAttrib and Expertise.

Wilderness Survival, let alone only Apply Posion is not worth the points. Beastmastery has several (self)heals, easily applied conditions like posion and deep wound, and energy management. Wilderness Survival has little or even nothing to add.

Maybe a BM with Incendiary Arrows, Ignite Arrows and Ebon Batte Standard of Honor could work, but that would be the only reason I see to invest in Wilderness Survival for a Beastmaster. But to be honest, that looks to gimmicky to be useable.

RedDog91 · Dec 04, 2010, 01:34 PM // 13:34

Theres some good discussion here about being a beastmaster and what the advantages/disadvantages are.

Beastmastery is single target spike damage. You can't effectlively deal damage to surrounding foes unless you use a weapon spell such as Splinter Weapon on your pet (must target the pet when using the skill). Even then, the AoE is less than desirable.
Concentrate on single target damage. It's fairly easy to make a build where your pet deals 40 damage or more per hit without attack skills (note, must be dire or aggressive pet). Then, with skills whose conditions are met, like Brutal Strike you can have your pet dealing 120 and up with some of its skills.

A build I've recently been running in PvE recently is:
OgAUY3bitcSzGri3G4G8Geh+GrSA
with Beastmaster at 11+1+2
(if you don't have Great Dwarf Weapon, switch it for Otyugh's Cry)

WhiteAsIce · Dec 06, 2010, 07:52 AM // 07:52

Beast Mastery 10+1
Expertise 11+1+1
Dagger Mastery 10
---
Jagged Strike
Fox Fangs
Death Blossom
Asuran Scan
Brawling Headbutt
Enraged Lunge
Never Rampage Alone
Comfort Animal

Feel free to sub out NRA for another PvE-only skill, since you don't have Nightfall.

FoxBat · Dec 06, 2010, 08:40 PM // 20:40

without NRA (or RaO) you lack a decent IAS, which kills most of the melee-pet synergy. You can run tiger's fury but it is energy costly and will limit what else you can bring on your bar, in that case you might end up with cyclone axe and dismember, or crude swing + yeti smash, and pet attacks. The listed dagger build is also OK, daggers are already pretty fast and the pet gives you something to do with your elite, and you can always tack on scavengers strike for energy. I would go 11 dagger, 8+1 beast (or use a major expertise), you'll get more out of the death blossom buff than the pet will.

AndroBubbles · Dec 09, 2010, 09:43 AM // 09:43

I got Legendary Guardian with a R/A beastmaster. It's currently my favorite. I like to use death blossom spam+ferocious/scavenger strike for good synergy and damage balance. I consistently get 100+dps, and death blossom easily rivals the aoe you get from a scythe.

maxxfury · Dec 10, 2010, 02:07 AM // 02:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndroBubbles

death blossom easily rivals the aoe you get from a scythe.

The difference there is that deathblossom's aoe doesn't carry/proc physical buffs(yano the ones :P) like a scythe's aoe does, as the scythes aoe is actual hits and blossom is 2ndry...

MasterSasori · Dec 12, 2010, 12:20 AM // 00:20

R/P is just a lot of fun and the damage you get from it is pretty good. But for AoE, the /D or the /A would probably be better.

AndroBubbles · Dec 13, 2010, 02:57 AM // 02:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by maxxfury

The difference there is that deathblossom's aoe doesn't carry/proc physical buffs(yano the ones :P) like a scythe's aoe does, as the scythes aoe is actual hits and blossom is 2ndry...

It's nice for spike damage from mark of pain+splinter, and 80 armor ignoring aoe damage every 3 seconds+concentrated target damage seems pretty good to me. Eventually it just comes to preference, since a person playing correctly will still annihilate anything with /a or /d.

PurpleFission · Dec 17, 2010, 07:36 PM // 19:36

Well, you have 4 options: R/W, R/D R/P, R/A
R/W: The Bunnythumper, one of the most fun builds to play. Really give this a shot.

R/D: Im going to mention how great this option is even if you dont own NF. Rangers se the scythe nearly as well as assassins do. being able to spam poison, discounted attack skills and the best stances in the game.

R/A: To be honest, I havent played much with this combo, but i know some people who have had very satisfying results with it.

R/P: my personal favourite, imo it has the best synergy with pet skills and quick and easy condition spam.

Heres one you didnt expect: R/Me. Equip daggers and Illusionary weaponry on your bar and some ias + blocking and you can have some decent fun :P

Hope i helped.

KingAlkaiser · Dec 24, 2010, 09:21 PM // 21:21

I have finally purchased every single guild wars and now own nightfall/eye of the north.

Anyways I am still interested in using a good secondary for my ranger to use beastmaster. I currently use mesmer secondary because i give it to almost all my classes due to echo and archane echo but i rarely use any other skills than that.

so which is the good one r/d or r/p? i have narrowed it down to those 2.
someone said paragon complements it good how is this so? is it the beast skills that give adrenaline? this is one of the reasons i like that a lot actually. Actually I think im going to try this one out, I was originally going to switch to ritualist but i heard splinter wep got nerfed and i rarely use barrage in the first place.

Is paragon/ranger better than ranger paragon? I am making a paragon soon also and i am considering the pet combo also on it.

thank you very much for information by the way i appreciate it.

P.S- I tested pet with a bow and it kind of sucks, also i think being beastmaster 100% sucks also because you just stand there like a dumb ass doing nothing lol. But i find it funny people in pvp ignore the pet and think it wont do anything and then out of nowhere you doing 100+ dps and they run like babies lol. I have suprised a lot of people with the pet.

by the way what pet do you guys prefer? i like the black moa bird and any of the birds like that bald eagle and raven. I wish they had a pigeon pet lol.

**Marty Silverblade** · Dec 24, 2010, 09:56 PM // 21:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by KingAlkaiser

Anyways I am still interested in using a good secondary for my ranger to use beastmaster. I currently use mesmer secondary because i give it to almost all my classes due to echo and archane echo but i rarely use any other skills than that.

There are much much better things to do with elite slots than Echo.

Quote:

so which is the good one r/d or r/p? i have narrowed it down to those 2.
someone said paragon complements it good how is this so? is it the beast skills that give adrenaline? this is one of the reasons i like that a lot actually. Actually I think im going to try this one out, I was originally going to switch to ritualist but i heard splinter wep got nerfed and i rarely use barrage in the first place.

They're both good, but I'd definitely go /D. I haven't played around with them much, but melee damage is stronger than ranged. There are more/better buffs (like SoH), more spammable attacks, AoE, among other things. The synergy people are talking about may be referring to the ability to pick up party buffs like Anthem of Envy, but that would probably stretch your attributes out too far.

As far as Splinter Weapon goes, it hasn't been changed in a long long time. iirc, the duration got cut from 60 seconds to 20, and a limit on the number of foes it can strike was added. It's still an incredibly powerful skill, though it's much better on a Rit. There's a big difference between [email protected] and [email protected] Put it on a hero for best use (and you don't need to have Barrage for it to be useful).

Quote:

Is paragon/ranger better than ranger paragon? I am making a paragon soon also and i am considering the pet combo also on it.

If you want to go for a pet, go for a Ranger. Expertise is pretty important. It also allows you to change the weapon you want to use. If you get bored of scythe + pet builds, swap to a spear or bow or daggers. Maybe even Hammer/Axe for randomness. Paragon primary doesn't offer much to a Beast Master.

Quote:

by the way what pet do you guys prefer? i like the black moa bird and any of the birds like that bald eagle and raven. I wish they had a pigeon pet lol.

Polar Bear/Jingle Bear.

reaper with no name · Dec 25, 2010, 11:25 AM // 11:25

I concur about the /D. Scythes are very powerful. Expertise will let you spam the quicker scythe attacks almost constantly.

Lurkers are the best pet. No question.

On a more serious note, any pet that deals slashing damage in the evolution you want (slashing > piercing) that isn't a black bear is the best.