Beastmaster - any advice

[TamTiTam]

I'm relativly new to POE2 (not to crpgs in general) and I would really like to play a Beastmaster. But I don't really have a clue about how to play with my lovely Druid/Ranger-Hybrid. What kind of skills / abilites go well with each other? What kind of builds would be viable?

 

Thank you for your guidance ( =

 

[hansvedic]

You're going to have a lot of additional accuracy, which will help in landing those Fortitude-targeting spells. 
 

Maybe consider going melee w/ a Morningstar for a fortitude debuff and rely a lot on Druid DoT spells?

 

Or perhaps shoot for Aamiina's Legacy (a ranged weapon), which has a chance to stun on hit, for additional fortitude debuffing?

 

EDIT: From my knowledge, Beastmaster isn't exactly one of the most favored combinations, especially on PoTD, but perhaps you can make it work.

Edited November 7, 2018 by hansvedic

[Boeroer]

First you'll have to decide if you want to use Spiritshift a lot - or not.

[forbs]

I've played 2 different types of Beastmaster, first was a Fury/Ghostheart which I tailored towards throwing out spells to get targets low and then finish them in the fury spiritshift, it was fun and the ranged accuracy really helped along with the bounces from fury's lightning form. I took heart of the storm and used the essence interrupter for its lightning damage along with all the other lightning spells.

 

The second I went lifegiver/Ghostheart and basically used them as a support character. Dropped heals in my group and then peppered with war bows, using the ranger abilities on things like concussion shot on mages and taking out priority targets. Another option i toyed with for this was the stalker and keeping the pet near me to intercept any stray mobs coming to my back line. The only reason i went Ghostheart was i didn't need the extra micro of the pet and my tank was an Unbroken Trickster with near unlimited engagement.

 

I'd say the first was fun to see lightning going everywhere however the second seemed to be the more effective party member.

[Harpagornis]

Shifter/Ghostheart works pretty well even when playing solo and i had a lot of fun using a bear pet plus some heavy Spiritshift punching with little spell casting in between. If you want to double the fun you could use our Shifter Evolution Mod - this should put you even through PotD. @Mukurome for instance soloed Belranga with this one!

Edited November 7, 2018 by Harpagornis

[TamTiTam]

Thanks for alle the answers!
 

First you'll have to decide if you want to use Spiritshift a lot - or not.

 
I'm am not sure. I like the Idea to be able to overbear my enemies with my bear and bearform. And I'll propably have another Druid (+Chanter) with Teheku.
I also thought that the Spiritform of a Beastmaster might be too weak on higher levels, because it only scales with your power level (?). Is the Bonus of the Stalker-Spezialisation relevant in late-Game (it doesn't scale, doesn't it?).

 

I guess, I'll create a Beastmaster without specializations, to stay a bit more flexible. I hope I don't regret it late on, when I find the time to dive deep into the game-machanics.

 

(And I appreciate any further Advice from you guys.)

Edited November 7, 2018 by TamTiTam

[Boeroer]

If you like melee (no matter if shifted or not) I would pick

Stalker as the ranger subclass. +1 AR without recovery penalty is always good.