Curse

IxChel · Jul 23, 2005, 02:42 AM // 02:42

Ra/Mo (11+4 Beast Mastry, 10+1 Expertise, 10 Smiting)

* Zelot's Fire
* Charm Animal
* Call of Haste (10, 0, 25) (energy, cast-time, cooldown)
* Resurection Signet
* Disrupting Lunge (5, 0, 5)
* Ferocious Strike [E] (5, 0, 8)
* Predator's Pounce (5, 0, 5)
* Comfort Animal (10, 1, 1)

So... who said beastmastry sucks?

Ok. Today I decided I was _going_ to make beastmastry work. One of the major hobbles is the lack of a good weapon; by the time you take a high-expertise and high-beastmastry you're stuck with either choosing Marksmanship or finding another skill line /w a weapon. I chose beastmastry because I didn't want to use a bow... that's the whole point, you see. So I was struggling to find a good secondary, when I got hit with some nasty smiting monks (a common build these days). Anyway, what is neat about the smiting line is that it (a) gives you a wand/staff, and (b) has Zealots' Fire.

Zealots Fire: For 60 seconds, whenever you use a skill on an ally, all foes adjacent to your target are struck for 5-37 fire damage.

Nice skill. Oh, wait, it said foes "adjacent to your target". Isn't my target for beast master skills my pet? Oh, you don't say. At high expertise, I have 4 very spammable attack skills -- I just can't click them fast enough I have so much energy to burn. They have a cast-time of 0 -- so you can do them all at once if you want... is this a bug? Open the flood gates. Let's see those beastmasters finally take back their rightful spot as Guild Wars champions.

EDIT: As it turns out the "target" of the pet attack skills is yourself, so the Zelot's damage always centers around you when clicking pet attacks. I actually think this is a "bug" and I'm reporting it as such; the pet should be the official 'target' of these skills, not you. As such, this build is far less useful than I originally thought.

Kha · Jul 23, 2005, 02:45 AM // 02:45

Moved to The Campfire.

Watersong · Jul 23, 2005, 03:11 AM // 03:11

Mm, no bow at all. You're doomed if your pet dies.

ICURADik · Jul 23, 2005, 03:14 AM // 03:14

Sweet.

powdahound · Jul 23, 2005, 03:31 AM // 03:31

Those skills dont have a recharge of 0, they have casting time of 0. The cooldown on almost all the BM skills is pretty long.

Weezer_Blue · Jul 23, 2005, 03:55 AM // 03:55

You're /monk, and you are using Resurection Signet rather than a re-usable res? and where is revive animal? ya know... you could throw balthazar's aura in as well...

Tellani Artini · Jul 23, 2005, 04:36 AM // 04:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Watersong

Mm, no bow at all. You're doomed if your pet dies.

When you can heal your pet for over 100 every second and never run out of energy due to ferocious strike, then res back to over 50% health, that's not such a big problem. Then there's predator's pounce. How is he any more doomed than if his pet lives and the enemy chooses to target him first?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Weezer_Blue

You're /monk, and you are using Resurection Signet rather than a re-usable res? and where is revive animal? ya know... you could throw balthazar's aura in as well...

For random arena, re-usable res is kind of awful. Why would he want revive animal over comfort animal? Comfort will trigger zealot's fire, resurrecting the pet after it dies will not.

knives · Jul 23, 2005, 04:44 AM // 04:44

Mmm...I'll have to try this one. BM intrigues me..

Epinephrine · Jul 23, 2005, 05:13 AM // 05:13

Well, played around with it - it's a bit glitchy - the damage seems to radiate off the Ranger rather than the pet, so it seems that a "pet attack" targets the player, not the pet. On the plus side, you don't have to wait for an attack to finish, and at the 13 expertise I had it cost 2 energy per attack - I walked through 4 X 5 cost (thus 8 energy) attacks in less than a second (literally, you can mash the keyboard and get all 4 off), delivering a nice pile of area damage (about 31 a shot IIRC, so 124 PBArea damage - I didn't have smiting maxed) in less than a second for 8 energy. You can spike it like that roughly every 5 seconds between the three 5 secoond cycle attacks and comfort pet for a burst of 120 or so area damage every 5 seconds, and bits between.

Not bad, it is definitely a surprise for anyone who thinks you're a poor defenseless ranger. It's not Uber cost effective, but few spells can deliver that type of damage that frequently - it's not a bad skill set - it turns out that you can even use comfort animal to attack if you leave Charm animal behind - the pet skills don't work, but comfort animal does - it gives a message that your pet is out of range, but it resolves and delivers the damage.

UberRusty · Jul 23, 2005, 06:54 AM // 06:54

I MUST try this build! Time to switch to a ranger secondary, get the skills, equip a melee weapon and charge in.

Haloknight9 · Jul 23, 2005, 07:15 AM // 07:15

I have to say this is an interesting build. I think ill try it a bit later.

KuTeBaka · Jul 23, 2005, 07:25 AM // 07:25

why dont you put some sort of running skill in there, just in case they come after you? you dont need to be standing to cast the shouts.

IxChel · Jul 23, 2005, 09:19 AM // 09:19

If I'd change anything, it'd be to replace the Call of Haste with yet another Beast Attack, such as Brutal Strike (10, 0, 5). A bit more expensive than the others, but the build above never runs even close to low; so mixing-in a 10 energy attack wouldn't hurt. This is without me reading the pet attack descriptions or using them effectively (like waiting about 2 seconds per call to actually have the pet do something).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Watersong

Mm, no bow at all. You're doomed if your pet dies

Arn't we a bit narrow minded? If the pet dies, I use comfort animal to bring him back. Pet death is a minor hindrance --- the more important issue is what happens when _I_ die.

Quote:

Originally Posted by powdahound

Those skills dont have a recharge of 0, they have casting time of 0. The cooldown on almost all the BM skills is pretty long.

I listed the cooldown for you in the skill listings -- for most of them it is 5 seconds, which is not very long at all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by KuTeBaka

why dont you put some sort of running skill in there, just in case they come after you? you dont need to be standing to cast the shouts.

Well, given that damage is around you (and not the pet, unfortunately) running isn't going to be a good option. I wouldn't swap out any of those attack skills, as it is another 32 AOE damage every 5 seconds. If you really had to have a non-beastmastry skill, I'd pick throw dirt.... but that said: get a monk to heal you. This is a damage-dealing build, not a running build.

Myth Osis · Jul 23, 2005, 09:31 AM // 09:31

o.O just found this im a Mo/R so zealots is only affective if im standing by a mob?

That is if my pet is tanking then zelots is on me and not the pet? hmmm bugger...

Spose could use Balthazars aura but 25 mana ouch....!

IxChel · Jul 23, 2005, 10:10 AM // 10:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Myth Osis

o.O just found this im a Mo/R so zealots is only affective if im standing by a mob? That is if my pet is tanking then zelots is on me and not the pet? hmmm bugger...

I bet Zealots' fire does exactly what the skill description says -- it centers the AoE damage around target other ally. This comes down to N cases:

1. if you are targeting a "foe" (and watching their skill-bar), then it centers the Zealot's Fire around you;

2. if you are targeting your "pet" and you hit the pet attack, it might (not tested) center the Zealot's Fire around your pet; and thus,

3. if you are targeting your "monk" and you hit a pet attack, it might do an additional Zealot's Fire around your monk! (not tested).

Anyone who has the build up care to test and report back?

Black Raine · Jul 23, 2005, 10:14 AM // 10:14

I tried making a R/Mo beastmaster once... was hilarious.

Level 12 Smiting Prayers for...

Strength of Honor- + 8 damage that is unaffected by armor (I think and added the the damage value last, like Galrath Slash)
Judge's Insight- 20% armor penetration

Level 16 Beastmastery and your pet does...

17.23 - 32.16 damage per hit...

With Judge's Insight... your pet deals...

21.21 - 39.59 damage per hit... on a 60 AL target

Add 8 from Strength of Honor...

29.21 - 47.59 per hit. Nice

By the by, I got these numbers from the calculator on the guild wars guru main site.

And this isn't including pet attacks. ^_^

IxChel · Jul 23, 2005, 10:39 AM // 10:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Black Raine

29.21 - 47.59 per hit

That is nice; but that's not the rationale for this build -- you could just as easily stack those on a Warrior /w Flurry (and a 1.33 rather than a 2.0 attack rate) and have more team damage being dealt.

This build centers around the idea that Zealot's Fire triggers when you use a "skill" on a "other ally". The goal is to trigger that AoE damage as cheaply as possible. The current approach is for a Monk to cast Zealot's Fire, then Divine Spirit, and then spam Divine Boon (at a cost of 1 energy) as many times as possible till the opponent is dead. With the 1/4 second cast, and the 3/4 after cast, you can get off about 13 of these with a maxed Divine Favor attribute. That's 2 slots and a cost of 2en/fire, for 13 seconds of each minute... but beyond that it's prohibitively expensive.

With the ranger's pet attacks your also in the 2-3/fire energy range, only its not limited to a single 13 second spike -- it is more continuous and sustainable damage. The problem with this build seems to be that it's not targeting the AoE damage around the pet; but this might just be because the pet isn't selected.

silvertemplar · Jul 23, 2005, 11:38 AM // 11:38

Nope been testing this with my Mo/R. Damage always around me, whether i select the pet, or me, or an ally makes no diff.

Simply spamming normal monk healing/mend condition etc on my pet do however cause damage arund the pet.

Punching Bag Used : Nice friendly self-healing Jungle Troll outside Denravi's.

Black Raine · Jul 23, 2005, 12:34 PM // 12:34

If you guys haven't realized yet, Pet attacks are something you cast on yourself. When you go to capture Ferocious Strike, you see the boss using the skill, not the pet.

It's kinda like... using certain shouts. You are the target of the skill, though the affect does not... effect you.

Example: "Fear me!" triggers zealot's fire. It is a skill that targets yourself though it effects the monsters around you.

Using a Pet Attack is like using a shout that tells your pet to do something.

Ollj · Jul 23, 2005, 03:20 PM // 15:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Watersong

Mm, no bow at all. You're doomed if your pet dies.

no hes not. he can still smite trough teammates just like before.
you must cast spells on allys to smithe trough them.