Power Soulbeast

Fury is the engine. Furious Grip hands you fury on every weapon swap, Vicious Quarry turns it into ferocity and extra critical chance, and the Furious Strength minor pays you again just for holding it. Live Fast adds fury and quickness whenever you use a Beast ability, and Essence of Speed makes that quickness stretch every other boon on you; Go for the Throat fires a lesser Sic 'Em off the same abilities.

Strider's Strength and Honed Axes are here for their unconditional halves — power for you and your pet, ferocity for both. The sword clause on one and the axe clauses on the other do nothing with maces in your hands. Eternal Bond heals you every time you use a merged skill and lets you swap pets without leaving beastmode; Twice as Vicious raises your damage for ten seconds after a disable, and Oaken Cudgel stuns while Wild Strikes dazes.

Marauder and Berserker's under Scholar, which is now a plain power and ferocity rune with no health condition attached. Force is a flat +5% damage. Fire sets off a flame blast on a critical hit, which the Skirmishing crit rate keeps triggering; Bloodlust is the other set's stacking power, and it only builds on kills. Fireworks wants a weapon skill with a recharge of 20 seconds or more, and Wild Strikes is the only one on either set — so the relic rides the mace-5 cycle.

On the bar, Dolyak Stance is the panic button: stun break, six stacks of Stability, reduced incoming damage, and no immobilize, chill or cripple landing on you while it holds. Signet of the Wild is not defence — its passive is ferocity for you and your pet, its active roots foes standing around you. Storm Spirit and Spirit of Nature are the group's share: vulnerability on the enemy, fury and regeneration on nearby allies, and the elite converts allies' conditions into boons.

The consumables are quiet armour. Mists-Infused Spherified Peppercorn-Spiced Oyster Soup is -10% incoming damage and +45 to every attribute in WvW, and Writ of Masterful Strength adds 200 power while you are above 90% health — a stat line that appears nowhere in the gear panel.

This build strips nothing. If the squad already has enough damage and needs boons taken off the enemy, Untamed corrupts them with the pet instead; if it needs healing, that is Druid.

The defence it does carry is all its own. Dolyak Stance breaks stun, gives you six stacks of Stability for six seconds and reduces the damage you take — but it covers you and nobody else, and so does the second of stability on Thistleguard. Bear Stance heals and strips conditions off you and the pet. None of that lifts a group; if the squad needs a body that holds other people up, this is the wrong slot.

And it is a medium-armour body in the front line. Those three buttons are the whole defensive kit; if you cannot time them, you will spend the fight on the floor.