Smiting Tiger, Hidden Beastmaster

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.

Moved to The Campfire.

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

Sweet.

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.

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...

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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....!

Quote: Originally Posted by Myth Osis

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. ^_^

Quote: Originally Posted by Black Raine

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.

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.

Quote: Originally Posted by Watersong