Hi, I’ve been playing a ShoutBow build which I’m sure many others have tried or found, I will try my best to break down the build part by part.
Build Link: ShoutBow
I will start off by talking about reasoning behind using Resounding Timbre and Empathic Bond over Wilderness Knowledge, firstly I’m using “We heal as one!” as my heal and to gain out of combat swiftness, mobility is key and the recent meta’s have shown if you can’t keep up you will get left behind. I combo my healing skill with Vampirism Runes to give me decent burst heal on a 16 second cooldown. This plays big role in keeping my pets alive.
Resounding Timbre’s almost gives you permanent upkeep of regeneration which combo’s with Oakheart Salve, might not seem like much but the damage reduction is noticeable with the new Bark Skin trait.
So you should now have bit of understanding behind the synergy between some of the traits in terms of survival. So you might think is Empathic Bond and Signet of Renewal won’t be able to handle this current condition meta this is where you are wrong. I won’t go into to much detail as many already know how Empathic Bond works. Signet of Renewal is your save me card when you are condition bombed. This requires better pet management so watching positioning of your pet and using your F3(Return to Me) is a must. Get used to commanding your pet rather than letting them run wild. I rarely die to conditions, if I die it’s to burst or poor plays.
You also want to keep your health above 90% as much as you can which is rather easy, at first I was worried with how much burst/conditions are going around but due to being at range most fights you’re able to control damage intake rather easy. Bark Skin really supports your pet while in combat.
Signet of Stone, how to use it effectively. Due to running Vampirism Runes you don’t want to ever use Signet of Stone until Mist Form has proc’d, which will proc at 4k health. This gives you a insanely long escape from burst, sure condition might get you but they aren’t the real threat atm its having thief/mesmer train you to death from stealth. This combo will stop class’s from being able to land big openers. Normally I will let myself go into Mist Form come out right into Signet of Stone followed with RaO and my Heal and try to counter burst. Doesn’t always go to plan but most of the time I have little to no drama, you also have Lightning Reflexes which most of the time will save you from getting bursted down extremely fast.
Last tip for fighting Ranger’s using similar build, let them waste their Signet of Stone first this will almost always end in your favor.
Raven’s, this one was no brainer. They are one of if not our best burst pet, now with changes to Beastmaster trait line your birds are on ROIDS. Key to making your birds work effectively, is the timing and use of the F2 skill and traits. If you haven’t used the new trait Taunt I suggest you give it a try it’s extremely effective at many rolls.
Taunt can be used in the following areas.
- Help line up spike combo’s with team mates. ( Call target, Taunt target. Team mates unload there burst/conditions, works best with Ranged or Teleport damage.) While you unload Rapid Fire, try not to knock back the target save that for peels or interrupting vital skills.
- Peel mobs of targets off a friendly getting trained.
- Interrupting skills, (I’ve interrupted the Guards Elite using Taunt).
- Stop people from reviving their team mate and stop people from cleaving or stomping a team mate.
- Counter bursting a target, E.g. Thief Stealth teleports to you, pet swap into F2 and you will disable the thief allowing you to counter burst with Rapid Fire + Point Blank Shot.
- You can pull people out of stealth, when a thief uses there house skill you can taunt them into attacking breaking there stealth. Great way to stop groups of people from stealthing.
These are just some of ways you can use Taunt, with it being on 15 second cooldown you have rather high up-time on making plays for your team.
Taunt with Rapid Fire is your main combo (goto Golems and test the combo), try to use Point Blank Shot and Barrage as defensive skills (peels/control) or interrupts.
That should cover most of the build, now I can’t explain every detail allot comes down to player skill. Positioning and timing of skills is key, when it comes to fighting other classes once again player skill. Fighting some builds atm or classes does require higher skill cap but once you get hang of things it becomes allot easier.
Build is fresh fun to play, hope you enjoy and the meta is still early game so much will change over time.
Twitch – Aussie Streamer