User:Windjammer/Solo Beastmaster

The Solo Beastmaster uses the pet to tank and kill mobs. It depends equally on the beasts' rote defensive and offensive powers, and the master's mobility. The build uses powerful, active, single target attacks to deal damage (as opposed to passive AoE type damage used by basically every other general purpose farming build).

The build is played in a very active way. Rather than striding into groups of enemies and keeping certain skills going, the master and beast may do a lot of moving around. Often, foes break of from the main melee around the pet, and the master must kite them or lead them back to the melee. Because of this, the build must be very mobile.

There is, at the moment, only one really useful Solo Beastmaster build. It is a R/Mo and is very closely related to the R/any Tank Master, though it uses a different skill to split damage between the beast and the master, and has a slightly different skill setup. Like the Tank Master, it uses the elite skill Enraged Lunge to deal damage and Beastmastery shouts to protect the pet. However, it uses the Monk skill, Life Bond, to split the damage between beast and master and apply powerful damage reduction to the damage the master recieves in this way. Call of Protection gives the pet a hefty damage reduction. Comfort Animal and Predatory Bond round out the core of the build by providing healing to beast and master. A movement stance like Dodge is, strictly speaking, an optional skill; though it will be carried 90%+ of the time.

This build is meant for farming. Its close relative, the Tank Master, is much better suited for general PvE. The Tank Master uses no enchantment (so removal is not a problem) and carries a powerful self heal.

How it works
The main goal of this build is to get the mobs to focus on the pet, then use the pet to tank and kill them. Somtimes you must kite and avoid mobs that have broken off from the melee around the pet to chase you. Generally, you are happier if you do not have to do this; but somtimes it is helpful because it takes a little heat off the pet.

Enraged Lunge is the primary damage dealer of this build. At 16 Beastmastery, it deals almost its full damage with only two Beastmastery skills recharging (+72/80 damage); with three recharging it will do full damage. It can be used every 5 seconds. This one skill usually outputs enough damage to kill a boss that has no self heal. Generally, a second pet attack will be included in the build. Predator's Pounce makes the best choice because it is cheap, quick to recharge, does good damage, and heals the pet. Sometimes an interrupt will be required. In these cases Disrupting Lunge is usually used. The pet attacks every 2.14 seconds. With two five second recharge pet attacks, one can be used on almost every attack the pet does. If they both have an energy cost of five, they will not seriously tax energy management.

Life Bond forms the center of the defense. It splits the damage recieved by the pet between the beast and the master. Additionally, Life Bond filters the damage the master recieves in this way through damage reduction. Call of Protection reduces damage of attacks targeted at the pet. The damage reduction of this skill is applied before the damage is split by Life Bond, so the master really gets the benefit of this damage reduction too.

Comfort Animal provides the healing power of the build. At 16 Beastmastery it heals for 110 with a one second cast and recharge. It is probably the most powerful heal in the game! It can only be used on the pet. Providing healing for the master is Predatory Bond. There are more powerful self heals available for this build. Predatory Bond, however, is a Beastmastery shout, with no casting time and minimal fuss. With all the damage reduction, the master needs very little healing anyway, just make sure this skill is always recharging.

Dodge is virtually a core skill of this build. It helps to set up the melee around the pet quicker, because the quicker you get away the quicker the mob forms around the pet. It also is an excellent skill to help kite monsters around.

This build has excellent synergy. Almost all skills have no cast time and can be used on the run. Comfort Animal is the only skill requiring casting, and it has only a one second cast time. Further, all skills in this build have no distance requirement. All shouts, attacks, stances, even Comfort Animal can be used without regard to distance between beast and master. This gives the master complete freedom to move around. The only requirement: the pet must stay in the area under the mini-radar, or the connection through Life Bond will be lost. The pet will require considerable healing, but fortunantly you have one of the quickest, most powerful heals in the game in Comfort Animal to use on it. The master requires very little healing, perfect for the almost no hassle healing provided by Predatory Bond.

Equipment

 * Explorer's Armor
 * Flatbow and Hale Staff of Fortitude
 * Runes of Vigor and Vitae.

Basic Usage

 * Keep Life Bond and Call of Protection on the pet always.
 * Activate Dodge and Predatory Bond as you begin a pull.
 * Use the Flatbow to pull, once the pet is attacking, switch to the staff.
 * Flee until the monsters begin to aggro around the pet.
 * Alternate Enraged Lunge and your other pet attack. Make sure one hits before activating the next one; the pet will use the most recently activated attack.  You can watch your pet to see the damage is done, or watch the foes life bar to see the attack land.
 * Use Comfort Animal as often as necessary to keep the beast alive. Use Predatory Bond as often as possible to keep the master's health up.

The pet AI
The first challenge of this build is learning to work with the pet AI. here are some important points.

General Notes

 * The pet has next to no tracking AI for moving around mobs. If even one mob is solidly blocking the pet, it may get stuck on it.
 * Be aware of this problem as you select targets for the pet. Keep in mind you may have to kill one target with the pet, just so it can get past it to reach another.
 * If the pet is stuck, and you need it to reach another target (such as a healer) you can often shake the melee up. Run towards the melee and through the pet disengaging and running to the master, or mobs aggroing to the master, you may be able to dissolve the blockage around the pet.  Immediatly focus the pet on the desired target and flee.

Beginning a pull

 * To get the pet to attack, attack the desired target and wait until the pet begins to move towards it (Usually 1.5 to 2 arrows fired).
 * To pull a target or mob out, without the pet attacking, start to attack and fire only one arrow. Immediatly cancel the attack to prevent the pet from moving in.  The mob will now run towards you and you can pull it out.

The heat of battle

 * Once a battle is started, and the pet is involved, you need only attack a target and then immediatly cancel the attack to order the pet to switch to that target. You can do this from any distance and do not actually need to land any attacks.
 * The pet periodically checks to see if the master is fleeing. Any movement, away, towards, or around the pet will cause it to disengage if you are moving when this check is performed.  Be ready to tap the attack button then immediatly begin moving again to keep the pet focused while kiting or avoiding.

Ending the battle

 * The easiest way to get the pet to disengage is to actually run towards it until it begins to run to you.
 * Once the pet has killed its target, it will run to you if you do not immediatly order it to attack a new target.

The Monster AI
A second challenge is learning the monster AI.

General Notes

 * Be aware that while you are dealing with monster AI, the pet AI is also watching you. If the pet stops attacking because you are moving around, kiting and avoiding monsters, be prepared to quickly refocus it.
 * With Dodge active, monsters will not chase you for very long because you will move away from them so quickly. Without it, they will often chase you for a long time.

Dealing with aggro on the master

 * Move away briefly to get the monsters to return to the pet. Though they start to go back towards the pet, they often quickly return to chasing you.
 * You can keep the monsters that are chasing you moving back and forth between you and the pet for a little while by running away as they chase you, and running towards the battle when they start to return. Tap the attack button as monsters start to return to simultaneously run towards the battle and make sure the pet is focused.


 * If you have plenty of room, you can simply kite the monsters chasing you around while the pet works away at the ones around it.
 * While doing this, you can often get the monsters chasing you back in the melee around the pet by simply running past it with them in tow.


 * You can often switch the pet's target to the monster chasing you to get this mob involved back in the melee. The pet, with its aggro in tow, will chase down this target.  As it engages the monster chasing you, that monster will stop chasing you to deal with the pet.
 * If just one monster has aggroed to you, and it is a healer or other low damage monster, or an elementalist (the ranger has excellent elemental resistance), the master can often easily tank out the damage. If this is the case, just stand in place and kill off the targets around the pet.
 * NOTE: THE FOLLOWING POINTS HAVE BEEN OBSERVED BUT ARE NOT YET FULLY TESTED.
 * It seems that if the entire mob is aggroed on the pet, and you have the entire melee in your aggro circle, they are much less likely to disengage the pet and chase the master. In other words, the tendency for monsters break aggro from the pet and chase the master seems to be linked to the master standing outside the aggro circle of the monster.  This situation is has been observed when monsters have been kited back into the melee, and the master is then able to stand close by.
 * Monsters seem more likely to break off and chase the master when there is a large number of them. The following are reasons why this might be so:
 * When there is already a given number aggroed on one aggroable object in the fight, other monsters will look for another object to aggro on.
 * Each monster has a certain chance to aggro on the master, meaning the more there are the more likely one or two will chase the master.
 * When there are so many mobs gathered around the pet that other monsters are body blocked, or perhaps cannot 'see' it, they look for another aggro object.

Player Awarness
Your own personal awarness is very important for playing this build.

The mini-radar

 * This is your best friend. Use it to keep track of monsters and the pet.  Watch it for monsters coming to chase you, and to keep an eye on the pet to make sure it is focused on its target.

Health

 * It is easy to lose track of the pet's health as you are kiting and avoiding. Keep a wary eye on its health and make sure you use Comfort Animal as necessary, it is a reasonably quick cast.
 * Predatory Bond generally takes care of your health. Make sure it is always active.  If you are in danger of dying, make sure you are avoiding direct damage from mobs.  If you need to, disengage the pet and retreat to regen.  As a last resort, if you are taking damage from it and are about to die, dismiss Life Bond.  If you do this, try to quickly disengage the pet and keep it alive with Comfort Animal.

Energy

 * With high Expertise energy can be managed. Pet attacks, at an energy cost of two (with an Expertise of 14), put very little drain on energy.  Constant use of Comfort Animal will steadily chip away at energy however.  If you are running out of energy, you can often regen in the middle of a battle by just using Comfort Animal when necessary.  Do this until energy is full before beginning with pet attacks again.

Aggro

 * Understand aggro mechanics. Read the article on this by clicking here

The Pet

 * Always know what the pet is doing and who it is attacking. If the pet is constantly disengaging, and you are not refocusing it quickly, you will never kill anything.  If the pet is attacking a target, but a healer is keeping it alive, you need to kill the healer first.  Remain aware of pet AI and behavior as you move about.

The Monsters

 * Know the skills of monsters and bosses you will be dealing with. With the right usage and skill selection, the Solo Beastmaster can do a lot; but you must know what you will be up against
 * Be aware of the monsters aggroed on you. Some are a bigger threat than others.
 * Remain aware of monster AI and behavior as you move about.

Target Priority

 * In general, healers must be killed first. It is often possible to kill soft targets even with a healer present however.  Targets that use powerful degen must be the first killed if no healer is present.  If you can kill them quickly with a healer around, consider killing them first even.  Kill soft targets before hard ones.  If you can't reach a healer because of blockage (they often stand in the back) try taking out some soft targets that can be killed even in the presence of a healer, then go for it.
 * Sometimes, the target you would like to begin the attack on is standing close to the back. It best to begin the pull on the monster closest to you.  Try waiting for the desired target to reach the front as they mob shuffles around.  If a mob is chasing you, and you must start the attack, or the desired target will not move to the front, start the attack on the closest mob.  Once you are away and the pet is engaged, try switching it to the desired target.

Terrain

 * Height advantage. If you have height advantage, you have much better range with your bow and can pull from further away.
 * Obstructions. If monsters are aggroed on you, you can often obstruct their ranged attacks by hiding behind a wall.  Monster AI will not recognize that its attack is obstructed and will continue to attack you fruitlessly.